World Cup Special: Most successful nations and past winners of football’s showpiece

The FIFA World Cup is an international football competition established in 1930. It is contested by the national teams of countries that are members of FIFA.

Since inception, the tournament has taken place every four years, except in 1942 and 1946 when it was cancelled due to World War II.

The most recent World Cup was hosted by Brazil in 2014 and was won by Germany, who defeated Argentina 1–0 after extra time.

In the semi-final of that tournament, Germany shocked the world by thrashing hosts Brazil 7-1. The 2014 German team also became the first European team to win in South America.

Since the inception of the FIFA World Cup, there have been 20 tournaments and 77 nations have appeared at least once. Of those, 12 nations have made it to the final while eight have won.

The most successful World Cup team is Brazil. Apart from being the only nation to have participated in every World Cup, Brazil has also won five titles, the most so far.

Italy and Germany trail Brazil with four titles apiece. Uruguay and Argentina have won the tournament twice each while England, France and Spain have each won it once.

As the world focuses on Russia, the most-asked question in the days leading up to the World Cup is; who will win the tournament?

In time we’ll know, but first, here is a rundown of the past winners of the FIFA World Cup.