FIFA World Cup

FIFA World Cup

The current FIFA World Cup Trophy, awarded to the World Cup champions since 1974
Founded	1930
Number of teams	32 (finals) 204 (qualifiers for 2010)
Current champions	Spain (1st title)
Most successful team(s)	Brazil (5 titles)
Website	World Cup
2014 FIFA World Cup qualification

The FIFA World Cup, often simply the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The championship has been awarded every four years since the inaugural tournament in 1930, except in 1942 and 1946 when it was not held because of the Second World War. The current champions are Spain, who won the 2010 tournament.

The current format of the tournament involves 32 teams competing for the title at venues within the host nation(s) over a period of about a month; this phase is often called the World Cup Finals. A qualification phase, which currently takes place over the preceding three years, is used to determine which teams qualify for the tournament together with the host nation(s).

The 19 World Cup tournaments have been won by eight different national teams. Brazil have won five times, and they are the only team to have played in every tournament. The other World Cup winners are Italy, with four titles; Germany, with three titles; Argentina and inaugural winners Uruguay, with two titles each; and England, France, and Spain, with one title each.

The World Cup is the world's most widely viewed sporting event; an estimated 715.1 million people watched the final match of the 2006 FIFA World Cup held in Germany.

The next three World Cups will be hosted by Brazil in 2014, Russia in 2018, and Qatar in 2022.

History

Previous international competitions

The world's first international football match was a challenge match played in Glasgow in 1872 between Scotland and England, which ended in a 0–0 draw. The first international tournament, the inaugural edition of the British Home Championship, took place in 1884. As football grew in popularity in other parts of the world at the turn of the 20th century, it was held as a demonstration sport with no medals awarded at the 1900 and 1904 Summer Olympics (however, the IOC has retroactively upgraded their status to official events), and at the 1906 Intercalated Games.

After FIFA was founded in 1904, it tried to arrange an international football tournament between nations outside the Olympic framework in Switzerland in 1906. These were very early days for international football, and the official history of FIFA describes the competition as having been a failure.

At the 1908 Summer Olympics in London, football became an official competition. Planned by The Football Association (FA), England's football governing body, the event was for amateur players only and was regarded suspiciously as a show rather than a competition. Great Britain (represented by the England national amateur football team) won the gold medals. They repeated the feat in 1912 in Stockholm.

With the Olympic event continuing to be contested only between amateur teams, Sir Thomas Lipton organised the Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy tournament in Turin in 1909. The Lipton tournament was a championship between individual clubs (not national teams) from different nations, each one of which represented an entire nation. The competition is sometimes described as The First World Cup, and featured the most prestigious professional club sides from Italy, Germany and Switzerland, but the FA of England refused to be associated with the competition and declined the offer to send a professional team. Lipton invited West Auckland, an amateur side from County Durham, to represent England instead. West Auckland won the tournament and returned in 1911 to successfully defend their title.

In 1914, FIFA agreed to recognise the Olympic tournament as a "world football championship for amateurs", and took responsibility for managing the event. This paved the way for the world's first intercontinental football competition, at the 1920 Summer Olympics, contested by Egypt and thirteen European teams, and won by Belgium. Uruguay won the next two Olympic football tournaments in 1924 and 1928. Those were also the first two open world championships, as 1924 was the start of FIFA's professional era.

Due to the success of the Olympic football tournaments, FIFA, with President Jules Rimet the driving force, again started looking at staging its own international tournament outside of the Olympics. On 28 May 1928, the FIFA Congress in Amsterdam decided to stage a world championship itself. With Uruguay now two-time official football world champions and to celebrate their centenary of independence in 1930, FIFA named Uruguay as the host country of the inaugural World Cup tournament.

The national associations of selected nations were invited to send a team, but the choice of Uruguay as a venue for the competition meant a long and costly trip across the Atlantic Ocean for European sides. Indeed, no European country pledged to send a team until two months before the start of the competition. Rimet eventually persuaded teams from Belgium, France, Romania, and Yugoslavia to make the trip. In total thirteen nations took part: seven from South America, four from Europe and two from North America.

The first two World Cup matches took place simultaneously on 13 July 1930, and were won by France and USA, who defeated Mexico 4–1 and Belgium 3–0 respectively. The first goal in World Cup history was scored by Lucien Laurent of France. In the final, Uruguay defeated Argentina 4–2 in front of a crowd of 93,000 people in Montevideo, and in doing so became the first nation to win the World Cup.

World Cups before World War II

After the creation of the World Cup, the 1932 Summer Olympics, held in Los Angeles, did not plan to include football as part of the schedule due to the low popularity of the sport in the United States, as American football had been growing in popularity. FIFA and the IOC also disagreed over the status of amateur players, and so football was dropped from the Games. Olympic football returned at the 1936 Summer Olympics, but was now overshadowed by the more prestigious World Cup.

The issues facing the early World Cup tournaments were the difficulties of intercontinental travel, and war. Few South American teams were willing to travel to Europe for the 1934 and 1938 tournaments, with Brazil the only South American team to compete in both. The 1942 and 1946 competitions, which Nazi Germany and Brazil sought to host, were cancelled due to World War II and its aftermath.

World Cups after World War II

The 1950 World Cup, held in Brazil, was the first to include British participants. British teams withdrew from FIFA in 1920, partly out of unwillingness to play against the countries they had been at war with, and partly as a protest against foreign influence on football, but rejoined in 1946 following FIFA's invitation. The tournament also saw the return of 1930 champions Uruguay, who had boycotted the previous two World Cups. Uruguay won the tournament again after defeating the host nation Brazil, in the match called " Maracanazo" (Portuguese: Maracanaço).

In the tournaments between 1934 and 1978, 16 teams competed in each tournament, except in 1938, when Austria was absorbed into Germany after qualifying, leaving the tournament with 15 teams, and in 1950, when India, Scotland and Turkey withdrew, leaving the tournament with 13 teams. Most of the participating nations were from Europe and South America, with a small minority from North America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. These teams were usually defeated easily by the European and South American teams. Until 1982, the only teams from outside Europe and South America to advance out of the first round were: USA, semi-finalists in 1930; Cuba, quarter-finalists in 1938; Korea DPR, quarter-finalists in 1966; and Mexico, quarter-finalists in 1970.

Expansion to 32 teams

The tournament was expanded to 24 teams in 1982, and then to 32 in 1998, also allowing more teams from Africa, Asia and North America to take part. Since then, teams from these regions have enjoyed more success, with several having reached the quarter-finals: Mexico, quarter-finalists in 1986; Cameroon, quarter-finalists in 1990; Korea Republic, finishing in fourth place in 2002; Senegal, along with USA, both quarter-finalists in 2002; and Ghana as quarter-finalists in 2010. Nevertheless, European and South American teams continue to dominate, e.g., the quarter-finalists in 1994, 1998 and 2006 were all from Europe or South America.

Two hundred teams entered the 2002 FIFA World Cup qualification rounds; 198 nations attempted to qualify for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, while a record 204 countries entered qualification for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Other FIFA tournaments

An equivalent tournament for women's football, the FIFA Women's World Cup, was first held in 1991 in the People's Republic of China. The women's tournament is smaller in scale and profile than the men's, but is growing; the number of entrants for the 2007 tournament was 120, more than double that of 1991.

Football has been included in every Summer Olympic Games except 1896 and 1932. Unlike many other sports, the men's football tournament at the Olympics is not a top-level tournament, and since 1992, an under-23 tournament with each team allowed three over-age players. Women's football made its Olympic debut in 1996, and is contested between full national sides with no age restrictions.

The FIFA Confederations Cup is a tournament held one year before the World Cup at the World Cup host nation(s) as a dress rehearsal for the upcoming World Cup. It is contested by the winners of each of the six FIFA confederation championships, along with the FIFA World Cup champion and the host country.

FIFA also organises international tournaments for youth football ( FIFA U-20 World Cup, FIFA U-17 World Cup, FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup, FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup), club football ( FIFA Club World Cup), and football variants such as futsal ( FIFA Futsal World Cup) and beach soccer ( FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup). Since the 2010 edition, the U-20 Women's World Cup has played the same role in women's football as the Confederations Cup plays in the men's game. When the U-20 Women's World Cup is held the year before the Women's World Cup, both tournaments are awarded in a single bidding process, with the U-20 tournament serving as a dress rehearsal for the larger competition.

Trophy

From 1930 to 1970, the Jules Rimet Trophy was awarded to the World Cup winner. It was originally simply known as the World Cup or Coupe du Monde, but in 1946 it was renamed after the FIFA president Jules Rimet who set up the first tournament. In 1970, Brazil's third victory in the tournament entitled them to keep the trophy permanently. However, the trophy was stolen in 1983, and has never been recovered, apparently melted down by the thieves.

After 1970, a new trophy, known as the FIFA World Cup Trophy, was designed. The experts of FIFA, coming from seven different countries, evaluated the 53 presented models, finally opting for the work of the Italian designer Silvio Gazzaniga. The new trophy is 36 cm (14.2 in) high, made of solid 18 carat (75%) gold and weighs 6.175 kg (13.6 lb). The base contains two layers of semi-precious malachite while the bottom side of the trophy bears the engraved year and name of each FIFA World Cup winner since 1974. The description of the trophy by Gazzaniga was: "The lines spring out from the base, rising in spirals, stretching out to receive the world. From the remarkable dynamic tensions of the compact body of the sculpture rise the figures of two athletes at the stirring moment of victory."

This new trophy is not awarded to the winning nation permanently. World Cup winners retain the trophy until the next tournament and are awarded a gold-plated replica rather than the solid gold original.

At the present, all members (players, coaches, and managers) of the top three teams receive medals with an insignia of the World Cup Trophy; winners' (gold), runner-ups' (silver), and third-place (bronze). In the 2002 edition, fourth-place medals were awarded to hosts South Korea. Prior to the 1978 tournament, medals were only awarded to the eleven players on the pitch at the end of the final and the third-place match. In November 2007, FIFA announced that all members of World Cup-winning squads between 1930 and 1974 were to be retroactively awarded winners' medals.

Format

Qualification

Since the second World Cup in 1934, qualifying tournaments have been held to thin the field for the final tournament. They are held within the six FIFA continental zones ( Africa, Asia, North and Central America and Caribbean, South America, Oceania, and Europe), overseen by their respective confederations. For each tournament, FIFA decides the number of places awarded to each of the continental zones beforehand, generally based on the relative strength of the confederations' teams.

The qualification process can start as early as almost three years before the final tournament and last over a two-year period. The formats of the qualification tournaments differ between confederations. Usually, one or two places are awarded to winners of intercontinental play-offs. For example, the winner of the Oceanian zone and the fifth-placed team from the Asian zone entered a play-off for a spot in the 2010 World Cup. From the 1938 World Cup onwards, host nations received automatic qualification to the final tournament. This right was also granted to the defending champions between 1938 and 2002, but was withdrawn from the 2006 FIFA World Cup onward, requiring the champions to qualify. Brazil, winners in 2002, were the first defending champions to play qualifying matches.

Final tournament

The current final tournament features 32 national teams competing over a month in the host nation(s). There are two stages: the group stage followed by the knockout stage.

In the group stage, teams compete within eight groups of four teams each. Eight teams are seeded, including the hosts, with the other seeded teams selected using a formula based on the FIFA World Rankings and/or performances in recent World Cups, and drawn to separate groups. The other teams are assigned to different "pots", usually based on geographical criteria, and teams in each pot are drawn at random to the eight groups. Since 1998, constraints have been applied to the draw to ensure that no group contains more than two European teams or more than one team from any other confederation.

Each group plays a round-robin tournament, in which each team is scheduled for three matches against other teams in the same group. The last round of matches of each group is scheduled at the same time to preserve fairness among all four teams. The top two teams from each group advance to the knockout stage. Points are used to rank the teams within a group. Since 1994, three points have been awarded for a win, one for a draw and none for a loss (before, winners received two points).

The ranking of each team in each group is determined as follows:

1. Greatest number of points in group matches
2. Greatest goal difference in group matches
3. Greatest number of goals scored in group matches
4. If more than one team remain level after applying the above criteria, their ranking will be determined as follows:
   1. Greatest number of points in head-to-head matches among those teams
   2. Greatest goal difference in head-to-head matches among those teams
   3. Greatest number of goals scored in head-to-head matches among those teams
5. If any of the teams above remain level after applying the above criteria, their ranking will be determined by the drawing of lots

The knockout stage is a single-elimination tournament in which teams play each other in one-off matches, with extra time and penalty shootouts used to decide the winner if necessary. It begins with the round of 16 (or the second round) in which the winner of each group plays against the runner-up of another group. This is followed by the quarter-finals, the semi-finals, the third-place match (contested by the losing semi-finalists), and the final.

Hosts

Selection process

Wikinews has related news: FIFA receives eleven bids for 2018 and 2022 World Cups

Early World Cups were given to countries at meetings of FIFA's congress. The locations were controversial because South America and Europe were by far the two centres of strength in football and travel between them required three weeks by boat. The decision to hold the first World Cup in Uruguay, for example, led to only four European nations competing. The next two World Cups were both held in Europe. The decision to hold the second of these in France was disputed, as the South American countries understood that the location would alternate between the two continents. Both Argentina and Uruguay thus boycotted the 1938 FIFA World Cup.

Since the 1958 FIFA World Cup, to avoid future boycotts or controversy, FIFA began a pattern of alternating the hosts between the Americas and Europe, which continued until the 1998 FIFA World Cup. The 2002 FIFA World Cup, hosted jointly by South Korea and Japan, was the first one held in Asia, and the only tournament with multiple hosts. South Africa became the first African nation to host the World Cup in 2010. The 2014 FIFA World Cup will be hosted by Brazil, the first held in South America since 1978, and will be the first occasion where consecutive World Cups are held outside Europe.

The host country is now chosen in a vote by FIFA's Executive Committee. This is done under an exhaustive ballot system. The national football association of a country desiring to host the event receives a "Hosting Agreement" from FIFA, which explains the steps and requirements that are expected from a strong bid. The bidding association also receives a form, the submission of which represents the official confirmation of the candidacy. After this, a FIFA designated group of inspectors visit the country to identify that the country meets the requirements needed to host the event and a report on the country is produced. The decision on who will host the World Cup is usually made six or seven years in advance of the tournament. However, there have been occasions where the hosts of multiple future tournaments were announced at the same time, as was the case for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, which were awarded to Russia and Qatar respectively.

For the 2010 and 2014 World Cups, the final tournament is rotated between confederations, allowing only countries from the chosen confederation (Africa in 2010, South America in 2014) to bid to host the tournament. The rotation policy was introduced after the controversy surrounding Germany's victory over South Africa in the vote to host the 2006 tournament. However, the policy of continental rotation will not continue beyond 2014, so any country, except those belonging to confederations that hosted the two preceding tournaments, can apply as hosts for World Cups starting from 2018. This is partly to avoid a similar scenario to the bidding process for the 2014 tournament, where Brazil was the only official bidder.

Performances

Six of the eight champions have won one of their titles while playing in their own homeland, the exceptions being Brazil, who finished as runners-up after losing the deciding match on home soil in 1950, and Spain, which reached the second round on home soil in 1982. England (1966) and France (1998) won their only titles while playing as host nations. Uruguay (1930), Italy (1934) and Argentina (1978) won their first titles as host nations but have gone on to win again, while Germany (1974) won their second title on home soil.

Other nations have also been successful when hosting the tournament. Sweden (runners-up in 1958), Chile (third place in 1962), Korea Republic (fourth place in 2002), and Mexico (quarter-finals in 1970 and 1986) all have their best results when serving as hosts. So far, South Africa (2010) was the only host nation to fail to advance beyond the first round.

Results

Year	Host		Winners	Score	Runners-up		Third place	Score	Fourth place		Number of teams
1930 Details	Uruguay		Uruguay	4–2	Argentina		United States		Yugoslavia		13
1934 Details	Italy		Italy	2–1 ( aet)	Czechoslovakia		Germany	3–2	Austria		16
1938 Details	France		Italy	4–2	Hungary		Brazil	4–2	Sweden		16/15
1950 Details	Brazil		Uruguay		Brazil		Sweden		Spain		16/13
1954 Details	Switzerland		West Germany	3–2	Hungary		Austria	3–1	Uruguay		16
1958 Details	Sweden		Brazil	5–2	Sweden		France	6–3	West Germany		16
1962 Details	Chile		Brazil	3–1	Czechoslovakia		Chile	1–0	Yugoslavia		16
1966 Details	England		England	4–2 ( aet)	West Germany		Portugal	2–1	Soviet Union		16
1970 Details	Mexico		Brazil	4–1	Italy		West Germany	1–0	Uruguay		16
1974 Details	West Germany		West Germany	2–1	Netherlands		Poland	1–0	Brazil		16
1978 Details	Argentina		Argentina	3–1 ( aet)	Netherlands		Brazil	2–1	Italy		16
1982 Details	Spain		Italy	3–1	West Germany		Poland	3–2	France		24
1986 Details	Mexico		Argentina	3–2	West Germany		France	4–2 ( aet)	Belgium		24
1990 Details	Italy		West Germany	1–0	Argentina		Italy	2–1	England		24
1994 Details	United States		Brazil	0–0 (3–2 p)	Italy		Sweden	4–0	Bulgaria		24
1998 Details	France		France	3–0	Brazil		Croatia	2–1	Netherlands		32
2002 Details	South Korea &  Japan		Brazil	2–0	Germany		Turkey	3–2	South Korea		32
2006 Details	Germany		Italy	1–1 (5–3 p)	France		Germany	3–1	Portugal		32
2010 Details	South Africa		Spain	1–0 ( aet)	Netherlands		Germany	3–2	Uruguay		32

• aet: after extra time
• p: after penalty shoot-out

Notes

1. ^ There was no official World Cup Third Place match in 1930; The United States and Yugoslavia lost in the semi-finals. FIFA now recognises the United States as the third-placed team and Yugoslavia as the fourth-placed team, using the overall records of the teams in the tournament.
2. ^ Austria withdrew after the draw as a result of the Anschluss with Germany: some Austrian players subsequently joined the German squad, leaving the tournament with 15 teams.
3. ^ ^{a b} There was no official World Cup final match in 1950. The tournament winner was decided by a final round-robin group contested by four teams (Uruguay, Brazil, Sweden, and Spain). Coincidentally, one of the last two matches of the tournament pitted the two top ranked teams against each other, with Uruguay's 2–1 victory over Brazil thus often being considered as the de facto final of the 1950 World Cup. Likewise, the game between the lowest ranked teams, played at the same time as Uruguay vs Brazil, can be considered equal to a Third Place match, with Sweden's 3–1 victory over Spain ensuring that they finished third.
4. ^ Only 13 teams played the 1950 FIFA World Cup. 16 teams entered the seeding groups draw. However, Turkey and Scotland both withdrew before the draw; France (eliminated in qualifying) was invited as a replacement, leaving the tournament to be held with 15 teams. After the draw, India and France both withdrew, so only 13 teams participated in the tournament.

In all, 76 nations have played in at least one World Cup. Of these, eight national teams have won the World Cup, and they have added stars to their badges, with each star representing a World Cup victory. (However, Uruguay are an exception to this unwritten rule; they choose to display four stars on their badge, representing their two gold medals at the 1924 and 1928 Summer Olympics and their two World Cup titles in 1930 and 1950).

With five titles, Brazil are the most successful World Cup team and also the only nation to have played in every World Cup (19) to date, and they will host the 20th in 2014. Italy (1934 and 1938) and Brazil (1958 and 1962) are the only nations to have won consecutive titles. West Germany (1982–1990) and Brazil (1994–2002) are the only nations to appear in three consecutive World Cup finals. Germany have made the most top-four finishes, with twelve, while sharing the record of most top-two finishes with Brazil, with seven.

Teams reaching the top four

Team	Titles	Runners-up	Third place	Fourth place	Top 4 finishes
Brazil	5 ( 1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, 2002)	2 ( 1950*, 1998)	2 ( 1938, 1978)	1 ( 1974)	10
Italy	4 ( 1934*, 1938, 1982, 2006)	2 ( 1970, 1994)	1 ( 1990*)	1 ( 1978)	8
Germany^	3 ( 1954, 1974*, 1990)	4 ( 1966, 1982, 1986, 2002)	4 ( 1934, 1970, 2006*, 2010)	1 ( 1958)	12
Argentina	2 ( 1978*, 1986)	2 ( 1930, 1990)	—	—	4
Uruguay	2 ( 1930*, 1950)	—	—	3 ( 1954, 1970, 2010)	5
France	1 ( 1998*)	1 ( 2006)	2 ( 1958, 1986)	1 ( 1982)	5
England	1 ( 1966*)	—	—	1 ( 1990)	2
Spain	1 ( 2010)	—	—	1 ( 1950)	2
Netherlands	—	3 ( 1974, 1978, 2010)	—	1 ( 1998)	4
Czechoslovakia#	—	2 ( 1934, 1962)	—	—	2
Hungary	—	2 ( 1938, 1954)	—	—	2
Sweden	—	1 ( 1958*)	2 ( 1950, 1994)	1 ( 1938)	4
Poland	—	—	2 ( 1974, 1982)	—	2
Austria	—	—	1 ( 1954)	1 ( 1934)	2
Portugal	—	—	1 ( 1966)	1 ( 2006)	2
United States	—	—	1 ( 1930)	—	1
Chile	—	—	1 ( 1962*)	—	1
Croatia	—	—	1 ( 1998)	—	1
Turkey	—	—	1 ( 2002)	—	1
Yugoslavia#	—	—	—	2 ( 1930, 1962)	2
Soviet Union#	—	—	—	1 ( 1966)	1
Belgium	—	—	—	1 ( 1986)	1
Bulgaria	—	—	—	1 ( 1994)	1
South Korea	—	—	—	1 ( 2002*)	1

* = hosts

^ = includes results representing West Germany between 1954 and 1990

^# = states that have since split into two or more independent nations

Best performances by continental zones

To date, the final of the World Cup has only been contested by European and South American teams. European nations have won ten titles; South American teams have won nine. Only two teams from outside these two continents have ever reached the semi-finals of the competition: USA ( North, Central America and Caribbean) in 1930 and Korea Republic ( Asia) who reached the semis in 2002. The best result of an African team is reaching the quarter-finals: Cameroon in 1990, Senegal in 2002 and Ghana in 2010. Only one Oceanian qualifier, Australia in 2006, has advanced to the second round.

Brazil, Argentina, and Spain are the only teams to win a World Cup outside their continental confederation; Brazil came out victorious in Europe ( 1958), North America ( 1970 and 1994) and Asia ( 2002), Argentina won a North American World Cup in 1986, while Spain won the only African World Cup in 2010. Only on three occasions have consecutive World Cups been won by teams from the same continent – Italy and Brazil successfully defended their titles in 1938 and 1962 respectively, while Spain's 2010 triumph followed Italy's in 2006.

Awards

At the end of each World Cup, awards are presented to the players and teams for accomplishments other than their final team positions in the tournament. There are currently six awards:

• The Golden Ball for the best player, determined by a vote of media members (first awarded in 1982); the Silver Ball and the Bronze Ball are awarded to the players finishing second and third in the voting respectively;
• The Golden Boot (sometimes called the Golden Shoe) for the top goalscorer (first awarded in 1982, but retrospectively applied to all tournaments from 1930); most recently, the Silver Boot and the Bronze Boot have been awarded to the second and third top goalscorers respectively;
• The Golden Glove Award (formerly the Yashin Award) for the best goalkeeper, decided by the FIFA Technical Study Group (first awarded in 1994);
• The Best Young Player Award for the best player aged 21 or younger at the start of the calendar year, decided by the FIFA Technical Study Group (first awarded in 2006).
• The FIFA Fair Play Trophy for the team with the best record of fair play, according to the points system and criteria established by the FIFA Fair Play Committee (first awarded in 1978);
• The Most Entertaining Team for the team that has entertained the public the most during the World Cup, determined by a poll of the general public (first awarded in 1994);

An All-Star Team consisting of the best players of the tournament has also been announced for each tournament since 1998.

Records and statistics

Two players share the record for playing in the most World Cups; Mexico's Antonio Carbajal (1950–1966) and Germany's Lothar Matthäus (1982–1998) both played in five tournaments. Matthäus has played the most World Cup matches overall, with 25 appearances. West Germany's Franz Beckenbauer (1966–1974) is the only player to be named to three Finals All-Star Teams.

In November 2007, FIFA announced that all members of World Cup-winning squads between 1930 and 1974 were to be retroactively awarded winners' medals. This made Brazil's Pelé the only player to have won three World Cup winners' medals (1958, 1962, and 1970, although he did not play in the 1962 final due to injury), with 20 other players who have won two winners' medals. Six players have collected all three types of World Cup medals (winners', runner- ups', and third-place); five players were from West Germany's squad of 1966–1974 including Franz Beckenbauer, and the most recent has been Italy's Franco Baresi (1982, 1990, 1994).

The overall top goalscorer in World Cups is Brazil's Ronaldo, scorer of 15 goals (1998–2006). Germany's Miroslav Klose (2002–2010) and West Germany's Gerd Müller (1970–1974) are second, with 14 goals. The fourth placed goalscorer, France's Just Fontaine, holds the record for the most goals scored in a single World Cup; all his 13 goals were scored in the 1958 tournament.

Brazil's Mário Zagallo and West Germany's Franz Beckenbauer are the only people to date to win the World Cup as both player and head coach. Zagallo won in 1958 and 1962 as a player and in 1970 as head coach. Beckenbauer won in 1974 as captain and in 1990 as head coach. Italy's Vittorio Pozzo is the only head coach to ever win two World Cups (1934 and 1938). All World Cup winning head coaches were natives of the country they coached to victory.

Among the national teams, Germany have played the most World Cup matches, with 99, while Brazil have scored the most World Cup goals, with 210. The two teams have played each other only once in the World Cup, in the 2002 final.