- The 2026 FIFA World Cup is the first World Cup featuring 48 teams. From 1998 through 2022, the tournament consisted of 32 teams.
- The first FIFA World Cup was held in Uruguay in 1930, and the host nation won the tournament, defeating Argentina 4–2 in the final.
- The 2026 World Cup will be the first hosted by three countries: the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The previous record was two host nations, shared by South Korea and Japan in 2002.
- Brazil has won the World Cup a record five times and is the only nation to have qualified for every World Cup tournament.
- The original World Cup trophy was called the Jules Rimet Trophy. It was stolen twice—first in England in 1966, when it was famously recovered by a dog named Pickles, and again in Brazil in 1983, after which it was never recovered.
- Only four countries have won the World Cup while hosting the tournament: Uruguay (1930), England (1966), Argentina (1978), and France (1998).
- The highest-scoring World Cup match was Austria’s 7–5 victory over Switzerland in the 1954 quarterfinals, with a combined 12 goals.
- Miroslav Klose held the record for the most goals scored in World Cup history with 16, accumulated across four tournaments from 2002 to 2014 … until Messi broke his record on Monday by scoring his 17th goal.
Facts by Sean McVeigh, factologist.
