Rather than looking at all clubs over all World Cup matches, let’s narrow this down and see which clubs have been most associated with winning the World Cup. We can do this in two steps.
1) Performances in World Cup winning campaigns
This table represents the top 20 clubs based on their contribution to the cause of the World Cup winning team each year, throughout the tournament. So to take Inter Milan as an example: Inter has supplied 20 players into 7 different World Cup winning squads, playing 6,938 minutes, scoring 26 goals, and wearing the captain’s arm band 11 times.
In many ways the Juventus performance is stronger, and you can see that the score on the index is very close, but with goals at a premium, Inter just has the edge. Juve has supplied the most players, the most playing time, and the most match captains.
The other top stat comes from Roma, with players featured in 8 different World Cup winning squads, which tops even Inter Milan.
Other memorable performances from individuals to drag their clubs into this table:
- West Ham get in purely due to Hurst, Moore and Peters in 1966
- Valencia’s inclusion is down to 6 goals in 1978 from Mario Kempes
- Nuremberg make it entirely due Max Morlock who scored 6 in 1954
| Rank | Club | Squad | Players | Min | Goals | Capt | Index |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Inter Milan | 7 | 20 | 6938 | 26 | 11 | 18378 |
| 2 | Juventus | 5 | 24 | 10356 | 18 | 25 | 18276 |
| 3 | Barcelona | 3 | 10 | 5218 | 18 | 0 | 13138 |
| 4 | Botafogo | 3 | 11 | 4753 | 17 | 0 | 12233 |
| 5 | Bayern Munich | 5 | 16 | 6712 | 9 | 7 | 10672 |
| 6 | Peñarol | 2 | 14 | 3060 | 17 | 4 | 10540 |
| 7 | Santos | 3 | 15 | 4140 | 14 | 12 | 10300 |
| 8 | Roma | 8 | 16 | 5442 | 6 | 7 | 8082 |
| 9 | FC Cologne | 3 | 9 | 2936 | 8 | 0 | 6456 |
| 10 | River Plate | 2 | 8 | 3784 | 6 | 7 | 6424 |
| 11 | Nacional | 2 | 14 | 2340 | 9 | 0 | 6300 |
| 12 | Palmeiras | 5 | 9 | 2974 | 6 | 0 | 5614 |
| 13 | Real Madrid | 5 | 9 | 3349 | 5 | 7 | 5549 |
| 14 | AC Milan | 5 | 10 | 3527 | 3 | 1 | 4847 |
| 15 | Vasco da Gama | 2 | 4 | 1515 | 5 | 6 | 3715 |
| 16 | West Ham United | 1 | 3 | 1350 | 5 | 6 | 3550 |
| 17 | Valencia | 2 | 4 | 754 | 6 | 0 | 3394 |
| 18 | Bologna | 2 | 5 | 1500 | 4 | 0 | 3260 |
| 19 | Monaco | 1 | 3 | 1391 | 4 | 0 | 3151 |
| 20 | Nuremberg | 2 | 2 | 450 | 6 | 0 | 3090 |
| Total All Clubs | 208 | 421 | 119408 | 271 | 117 |
Want to know more on this? Please just ask.
2) Performances in the World Cup final
This table only references the final match itself. Overall there have been 50 goals scored by the winning team in the 19 World Cup finals (including the 1950 final match) excluding penalty shootouts. Juventus comes out clearly on top, having 20 players who have appeared in a final, playing a total of 1,980 minutes, and 4 times having the winning captain. Their 5 goals have come from Orsi in 1934, Rossi and Tardelli in 1982, and Zidane (2) in 1998.
- Inter Milan and Roma have each had players selected in 7 finals
- West Ham rise to 4th due to Hurst’s hatrick in 1966
- Rot-Weiss Essen feature in the table thanks to Helmut Rahn’s heroics in 1954
| Rank | Club | Finals | Players | Min | Goals | Capt | Index |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Juventus | 5 | 20 | 1980 | 5 | 4 | 4055 |
| 2 | Inter Milan | 7 | 14 | 1325 | 5 | 2 | 3400 |
| 3 | Santos | 3 | 8 | 720 | 5 | 2 | 2795 |
| 4 | West Ham United | 1 | 3 | 360 | 4 | 1 | 2020 |
| 5 | Bayern Munich | 4 | 11 | 848 | 2 | 1 | 1678 |
| 6 | Botafogo | 3 | 9 | 810 | 2 | 0 | 1640 |
| 7 | Peñarol | 2 | 7 | 630 | 2 | 1 | 1460 |
| 8 | Nacional | 2 | 7 | 630 | 2 | 0 | 1460 |
| 9 | Barcelona | 3 | 9 | 976 | 1 | 0 | 1391 |
| 10 | Vasco da Gama | 1 | 3 | 270 | 2 | 1 | 1100 |
| 11 | Real Madrid | 4 | 6 | 564 | 1 | 1 | 979 |
| 12 | Roma | 7 | 11 | 974 | 0 | 1 | 974 |
| 13 | Valencia | 1 | 1 | 120 | 2 | 0 | 950 |
| 14 | Lazio | 1 | 1 | 90 | 2 | 0 | 920 |
| 15 | Triestina | 1 | 1 | 90 | 2 | 0 | 920 |
| 16 | Rot-Weiss Essen | 1 | 1 | 90 | 2 | 0 | 920 |
| 17 | Palmeiras | 3 | 5 | 496 | 1 | 0 | 911 |
| 18 | Bologna | 2 | 4 | 420 | 1 | 0 | 835 |
| 19 | River Plate | 2 | 7 | 704 | 0 | 1 | 704 |
| 20 | Independiente | 2 | 3 | 265 | 1 | 0 | 680 |
| Total All Clubs | 136 | 228 | 20768 | 50 | 19 |
Some Trivia…The World Cup Final – Club Performances
- Which club has contributed the most players to a single World Cup final winning starting lineup?
- Which club’s players have scored the most goals in a single World Cup final?
- Which club’s players, with 1,980 minutes in 20 appearances, have contributed the most playing time of all world cup final winning teams in the history of the World Cup?
- How many World Cup final winning teams have featured players selected from Manchester United? (players must actually have played)
- Which three clubs’ players have contributed the most goals (5) to world cup final winning teams over the history of the World Cup?
- Which club’s players have attracted the most yellow cards in World Cup final winning teams? (it is actually all in one game!)
- Bordeaux is the only club to have a player from a World Cup final winning team (in 1994) to have done what?
- AC Milan is the only club to have a player from a World Cup final winning team (in 1998) to have done what?
- In which year was the starting lineup for the World Cup final winning team selected from 11 different clubs?
- Which club has contributed the most World Cup final winning captains with 4?
SHOW ME THE ANSWERS!
