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The World Cup is the pinnacle of global football and the biggest prize a footballer can hope to win. Only a few players have managed to get their hands on the famous trophy which has been handed out every four years since 1930 (except in 1942 and 1946 when it was not held due to the Second World War). It has always, though, run during the summer when the domestic football campaign isn't playing.

The format for the World Cup has evolved in the 84 years it has been going. Originally just thirteen teams took part in the first tournament in 1930, now the competition is preceded by a three-year qualification phase. At the World Cup Finals 32 teams, including the automatically qualifying host nation, compete in a month-long orgy of football until there is one team still standing.

Unsurprisingly, given it is the biggest competing for the world’ most popular sport, it brings in huge television audiences. The World Cup is the most widely viewed and followed sporting event in the world, exceeding even the Olympic Games. The cumulative audience of all matches of the 2006 World Cup was estimated to be 26.29 billion with around 715.1 million people watching the final match. To put it into perspective that is a ninth of the entire population of earth.

Some of the greatest games of football ever witnessed have been at the World Cup with players going beyond the call of duty for their nations on the biggest stage. The last World Cup was in 2014 and was won by Germany. The next two tournaments will be fairly controversial, being hosted Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022. Both choices have been criticised and will be heavily scrutinised; Russia in light of the 2014 Crimean crisis and Qatar for allegations of vote-buying and poor working conditions for foreign workers. World football's governing body have admitted the Qatar World Cup might even have to be played during the winter because of the extreme heat in Qatar in the summer.

The World Cup has broken new ground in recent years having ventured to the Far-East with Japan and to South Africa in 2010 but they returned to more traditional footballing shores in 2014 as it headed to Brazil. The South American country had hosted the competition once before all the way back in 1950 when they famously lost out to Uruguay in the final in front of nearly 200,000 people in the Maracana. The 2014 competition did not end much more favourably as the Brazilians were humiliated by eventual winners Germany 7-1 in the semi-final in one of the most incredible World Cup games ever.

France Win the 2018 World Cup

For only the second time ever and the first time on foreign soil, France became world champions when beating Croatia 4-2 in the final on Sunday July 15th. The French side were unbeaten throughout the tournament winning six and drawing one of their seven games. They took an early lead when Croatian Mario Mandzukic headed a free-kick into the back of the net. That was the fourth game in a row that Croatia had fallen behind but it didn't take them too long to get back on level terms with a cracker of a goal from Ivan Perisic. However, it was France who went into half-time with a 2-1 lead after Antoine Griezmann scored a penalty as VAR made its impact after a handball in the penalty area.

France further extended their lead in the second half with goals from Paul Pogba and Kylian Mbappe before Mandzukic pulled one back thanks to a blunder by Hugo Lloris in the French goal, That left the Croatian forward as the first player to score at both ends in a World Cup final. France eventually won 4-2 though they weren't at their very best but they did enough to win the title with manager Didier Deschamps becoming only the third person to win the World Cup as a player and a manager.

Belgium finished third, beating England 2-0 in the third/fourth play-off. Harry Kane won the Golden Boot after scoring six goals in the tournament, the first English player to win the award since Gary Lineker in 1986. The Golden Ball award for the player of the tournament went to Croatia's Luca Modric.

Previous Winners

Only a few teams despite the hundreds who have tried to qualify over the past 80 or so years. There have been 20 World Cups in that time and they have been won by just eight different teams; Brazil the most with five; Germany and Italy with four, Argentina and Uruguay with two and France, Spain and England with one. Brazil also hold another record as the only team to have entered every tournament since 1930.

The 20 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 and Germany, with four titles each; Argentina and inaugural winners Uruguay, with two titles each; and England, France and Spain, with one title a piece.

Germany hold a fair few records, having played the most World Cup matches (106) and appeared in the most finals (8), semi-finals (13), quarter-finals (16) as well as scoring the most World Cup goals (224). They can also boast having the World Cup's all-time top scorer, with Miroslav Klose having scored 16 times in the competition.

Some of the greatest players ever to kick a ball have graced and won the World Cup, and going though them is a veritable Who’s Who of world football. Pele, Roberto Baggio, Franz Beckenbauer, Lionel Messi, Garrincha, Johan Cruyff and Diego Maradona have all done their stuff on the biggest stage of all (although only some of the have been lucky enough to be winners by the end of it). Messi and Baggio both single-handedly dragged their teams to the 1990 and 2014 finals respectively but both ended up losers in the final.