FIFA World Cup is the largest international football competition between the national teams of FIFA member countries, which takes place every 4 years in a pre-selected host country. The World Cup is one of the most striking events for football fans and sports lovers. Football world cup winners, best players, and top goal scorers are met in their countries like national heroes.
The football world cup history started in 1930 when the first World Cup was held in Uruguay. The most recent Mundial was in the summer of 2018 in Russia. The winner of the tournament was France, who won the Croats in the final.
The last competition was marked by the domination of European teams. Only the Old World participants made their way to the semi-finals of the tournament.
Football world cup history
Prior to the first World Cup, international football competitions were held at the Olympic Games. The International Olympic Committee prohibited professionals to participate in the Olympics. FIFA wanted to allow professional footballers, so the decision to hold the first World Cup outside the Olympics was made in 1928 at the FIFA Congress.
It is difficult to compare the game 90 years ago with current level events, but the championship aroused genuine interest. In total, 13 teams took part in the competition. In the final, the Uruguayan national team met with the team of Argentina and won making Uruguay footballers the first FIFAWorld Cup winners.
Football world cup winners
The national team of Brazil is the luckiest world football team. In 1970 they became FIFA club world cup winners for the third time in a row, having received the FIFA President’s Cup for permanent storage. In the same year, Brazilian Pele became the only player to win World Cup three times. And in 1994, Zagallo collected the largest collection of gold from all participants in the World Championships: as a player (1958, 1962), head coach (1970) and second coach (1994).
Soccer world cup winners list is following.
| Date and venue | Winner | Runner-up | Participants |
| Uruguay, 1930 | Uruguay | Argentine | 13 |
| Italy, 1934 | Italy | Czechoslovakia | 16 |
| France, 1938 | Italy | Hungary | 15 |
| Brazil, 1950 | Uruguay | Brazil | 13 |
| Switzerland, 1954 | West Germany | Hungary | 16 |
| Sweden, 1958 | Brazil | Sweden | 16 |
| Chile, 1962 | Brazil | Czechoslovakia | 16 |
| England, 1966 | England | West Germany | 16 |
| Mexico, 1970 | Brazil | Italy | 16 |
| West Germany, 1974 | West Germany | Holland | 16 |
| Argentine, 1978 | Argentine | Holland | 16 |
| Spain, 1982 | Italy | West Germany | 24 |
| Mexico, 1986 | Argentine | West Germany | 24 |
| Italy, 1990 | West Germany | Argentine | 24 |
| USA, 1994 | Brazil | Italy | 24 |
| France, 1998 | France | Brazil | 32 |
| Japan, Korea, 2002 | Brazil | Germany | 32 |
| Germany, 2006 | Italy | France | 32 |
| South Africa, 2010 | Spain | Holland | 32 |
| Brazil, 2014 | Germany | Argentine | 32 |
| Russia, 2018 | France | Croatia | 32 |
Top goalscorers in previous World Cups
All the goals scored while World Cup are considered a real event. Over 2,000 goals were scored for the 70-year history of the competition. Some of the players were able to score 3 goals in the final stages of the World Cup, some 5.
However, among FIFA World Cup champions are those who managed to score 10 or more goals. At the 1954 World Cup, Sandor Kosis, the forward of the Hungarian national team scored 11 goals, but in the next championship the Frenchman Just Fontaine scored 13 goals in 6 matches, what still remains a record. FIFA World Cup list of the best goal scorers is provided below.
| Year | Best scorer | Country | Goals |
| 1930 | Guillermo Stábile | Argentine | 8 |
| 1934 | Oldřich Nejedlý | Czechoslovakia | 5 |
| 1938 | Leônidas da Silva | Brazil | 8 |
| 1950 | Ademir de Menezes | Brazil | 7 |
| 1954 | Sándor Kocsis | Hungary | 11 |
| 1958 | Just Fontaine | France | 13 |
| 1962 | Vava, Garrincha, Flórián Albert, Leonel Sánchez, Dražan Jerković, Valentin Ivanov | Brazil, Hungary, Chile, Yugoslavia, USSR | 4 |
| 1966 | Eusébio da Silva Ferreira | Portugal | 9 |
| 1970 | Gerd Müller | West Germany | 10 |
| 1974 | Grzegorz Lato | Poland | 7 |
| 1978 | Mario Kempes | Argentine | 6 |
| 1982 | Paolo Rossi | Italy | 6 |
| 1986 | Gary Lineker | England | 6 |
| 1990 | Salvatore Schillaci | Italy | 6 |
| 1994 | Oleg Salenko, Hristo Stoichkov | Russia, Bulgaria | 6 |
| 1998 | Davor Šuker | Croatia | 6 |
| 2002 | Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima | Brazil | 8 |
| 2006 | Miroslav Klose | Germany | 5 |
| 2010 | Thomas Müller | Germany | 5 |
| 2014 | James Rodriguez | Colombia | 6 |
| 2018 | Harry Kane | England | 6 |
Top World Cup nations
All FIFA World Cup winners holding the largest number of victories were the footballers of the Brazilian national team (70 matches won), the most defeated were the Mexicans — 24. The largest number of defeats in the World Cup finals belongs to the German team — four. Among the teams that didn’t become a soccer world cup winner, the Holland team is on top. They lost three finals. The team of the Republic of Korea received the most goals during one tournament in 1954 (16 goals in two matches). Below is shown all time World Cup winners and runners-up list.
| Country | Winner | Ranked 2nd |
| Brazil | 5 | 2 |
| Germany | 4 | 4 |
| Italy | 4 | 2 |
| Argentine | 2 | 3 |
| Uruguay | 2 | 0 |
| France | 2 | 1 |
| England | 1 | 0 |
| Spain | 1 | 0 |
The world of football never stands still. Every day some new ideas are invented, fresh ideas appear because the most popular sport is constantly improving. Football development projects, training programs for coaches, promotion of the coaching profession, analysis of modern methodological and tactical trends in advanced competitions move the sport to a completely new level.
Highly qualified coaches contribute to the appearance of highly qualified football players, and this raises the quality standard in all of the world football making the World Cup even a more breathtaking, exciting and anticipated event.
