Spain beat Argentina in the final of the 2026 FIFA World Cup to claim its second world title, sixteen years after its first in 2010. It is a small club to join. In 96 years and 23 tournaments, only eight countries have ever won the World Cup.
The complete list
Brazil leads with five titles, won in 1958, 1962, 1970, 1994 and 2002. Italy and Germany follow on four each. Argentina has three. Uruguay, France and now Spain have two apiece, and England has one, from 1966.
Those numbers add up exactly to 23 — one champion for each tournament played. No World Cup has ever gone unclaimed, and no ninth nation has broken in.
What Spain's second title changes
Before 2026, Spain sat alone as a one-time winner alongside England. Its second trophy moves it level with Uruguay and France, and leaves England as the only single-title nation on the list.
The gap between Spain's two wins is worth noting. Sixteen years separates 2010 from 2026 — longer than the gap between any two of Brazil's five, and a reminder that even the strongest footballing nations rarely string titles together. Only Italy, from 1934 to 1938, and Brazil, from 1958 to 1962, have ever won back-to-back World Cups.
The nearly men
Argentina's defeat in the 2026 final was its fourth as runner-up, after 1930, 1990 and 2014 — the joint-most of any nation. That is the other side of a strong World Cup record: Argentina has reached seven finals and won three of them.
Eighty-four different national teams have appeared at a World Cup finals tournament. Fewer than one in ten of them has ever lifted the trophy.
The full breakdown is here as an interactive chart: FIFA World Cup Winners (All Time). For how often each country has simply reached the tournament, see Countries with Most FIFA World Cup Appearances.
Figures reflect the completed 2026 FIFA World Cup and are drawn from Wikipedia's List of FIFA World Cup finals.