This is a record of

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

's results at the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

. Argentina is one of the most successful teams in the tournament's history, having won three World Cups: in 1978,

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 **Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal enter ...

, and

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeypo ...

. Argentina has also been runner-up three times: in

1930 Events January * January 15 – The Moon moves into its nearest point to Earth, called perigee, at the same time as its fullest phase of the Lunar Cycle. This is the closest moon distance at in recent history, and the next one will b ...

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicist ...

and

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

. In 18 World Cup tournaments, Argentina has 47 victories in 88 matches. The team was present in all but four of the World Cups, being behind only

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

and

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

in number of appearances.

World Cup record

:''**Gold background color indicates that the tournament was won. Red border color indicates tournament was held on home soil.''

World Cup Finals

All matches

World Cup Finals

1930 v Uruguay

The inaugural FIFA World Cup tournament culminated with Argentina facing hosts and current Olympic champions

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

. The match was turned twice: Argentina went into half-time with a 2–1 lead in spite of an early goal for Uruguay, but the hosts ultimately won 4–2.

Guillermo Stábile Guillermo Stábile (17 January 1905 – 26 December 1966) was an Argentine professional football player and manager who played as a centre forward. At club level, Stábile won two national championships with Huracán and played in Italy and Fran ...

, one of Argentina's scorers, became the tournament's top striker with 8 goals total.

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1978 v the Netherlands

Argentina hosted the 1978 edition of the World Cup and reached the final. The Netherlands had already played the previous final in West Germany 1974 - and also lost to the hosts.

Diego Maradona Diego Armando Maradona (; 30 October 196025 November 2020) was an Argentine professional football player and manager. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport, he was one of the two joint winners of the F ...

was 17 years old at this point and already a star in his home country, but did not make the squad as coach

César Luis Menotti César Luis Menotti (; born 5 November 1938), known as ''El Flaco'' ("Slim"), is an Argentine former football manager and player who won the 1978 FIFA World Cup as the head coach of the Argentina national team. During his playing days, he pl ...

felt he was too inexperienced to handle the pressure of this major tournament. The playmaker position was instead filled by

Mario Kempes Mario Alberto Kempes Chiodi (; born 15 July 1954) is an Argentine former professional footballer who played as a striker or attacking midfielder. A prolific goalscorer, he finished as La Liga's top goalscorer twice with Valencia and amassed 11 ...

, who ended up becoming the first Argentinian to win the Golden Ball in addition to being the tournament's top scorer with 6 goals. The Dutch side was missing a superstar of their own:

Johan Cruyff Hendrik Johannes Cruijff (, internationally known as Johan Cruyff; 25 April 1947 – 24 March 2016) was a Dutch professional football player and manager. As a player, he won the Ballon d'Or three times, in 1971, 1973 and 1974. Cruyff was a ...

did not join the 1978 World Cup squads due to the aftermath of a kidnapping attempt which occurred in 1977. He only disclosed this information 30 years later. The closely contested match was influenced by a hostile atmosphere and ended with the Dutch players refusing to attend the award ceremony after Argentina grabbed the title in extra time.

1986 v West Germany

Eight years after the victory on home soil, Argentina won the World Cup title for the second time.

was voted Best Player of the tournament after scoring five goals and assisting the decisive 3-2 by

Jorge Burruchaga Jorge Luis Burruchaga (; born 9 October 1962), nicknamed ''Burru'', is an Argentine association football coach and former professional football player. He played both as an attacking midfielder and forward and scored the winning goal in the fi ...

in the 84th minute of the final. The match was played in front of a record attendance of 114,600 people.

1990 v West Germany

In 1990, Argentina faced West Germany in a repeat of the 1986 edition.

Pedro Monzón Pedro Damián Monzón (born 23 February 1962) is an Argentine football coach and former player who played as a defender. Club career ''Moncho'' Monzón played in different clubs, but most importantly in Independiente, with which he obtained 4 ...

became the first player ever to be sent off in a World Cup final, but was later joined by teammate

Gustavo Dezotti Gustavo Abel Dezotti (born 14 February 1964) is an Argentine former Association football, footballer who played as a Striker (association football), striker. He played most of his career for Newell's Old Boys in Argentina and was part of the team ...

. The match was decided by a penalty kick in favour of Germany.

2014 v Germany

In 2014, Argentina reached the final for the fifth time and for a third time had to face the German team, making it the most recurrent meeting for a final. In spite of a number of chances on both sides, regular time finished goalless. In the second half of extra time, substitute striker

Mario Götze Mario Götze (born 3 June 1992) is a German professional footballer who plays for Bundesliga club Eintracht Frankfurt and the Germany national team. Although his favoured position is that of a playmaker, Götze has also played as a false ni ...

scored the decisive goal for Germany.

2022 v France

Argentina opened up the scoring when Messi scored a penalty kick, and doubled their lead with a Di Maria goal in the 36th minute. France made two substitutions in the first half, but went into half-time trailing 0–2. Despite not having a shot until after the 80th minute, France were awarded a penalty as Randal Kolo Muani was brought down in the penalty area. Mbappé scored the penalty, and added a second goal less than two minutes later to equalise the scores. With the scores tied, the match went to extra time. Messi scored again for Argentina in the second extra time half. Mbappé was awarded a second penalty in the 118th minute after his initial shot hit the arm of Gonzalo Montiel. Mbappé scored his third goal, becoming the second player to score a hat-trick in the final of a men's World Cup. With the scores tied at 3–3, the match was completed by a penalty shootout. Argentina won the final after scoring all of their penalties, winning 4–2.

Record by opponent

Argentina have played a total of 88 FIFA World Cup games through 18 tournaments, facing 39 rivals. Teams in bold denote world cup winners, teams in ''italics'' show teams which played its first match ever in a World Cup against Argentina.
Teams with a * mark no longer exist. East Germany was annexed to Germany. Soviet Union now plays as Russia.
+Played as Yugoslavia and Serbia and Montenegro.

Head coaches

Through Argentinian team history, several coaches had trained it with different football styles from offensive to defensive tactics. There are two predominant 'football schools' about world champions coaches

César Menotti Cesar, César or Cèsar may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''César'' (film), a 1936 film directed by Marcel Pagnol * ''César'' (play), a play by Marcel Pagnolt * César Award, a French film award Places * Cesar, Portugal * C ...

who propagates possession and well-look play and

Carlos Bilardo Carlos Salvador Bilardo Digiano (born 16 March 1938) is an Argentine former physician, football player, and manager. Bilardo achieved worldwide renown as a player with Estudiantes de La Plata in the 1960s, and as the manager of the Argentina ...

who prioritize results and tactical order. These head coaches divides Argentine fans kindly. Other managers such as

Marcelo Bielsa Marcelo Alberto Bielsa Caldera (, nicknamed ''El Loco Bielsa'' , meaning "The Crazy Bielsa"; born 21 July 1955) is an Argentine professional football manager who was most recently the head coach of Premier League club Leeds United. He is a forme ...

has got his own football style. In another way this list shows records in World Cups and in qualifying stages excluding friendlies. From 1994 towards, three points are given for a win. Previously were two.

Against conferences

FIFA delegates regional qualification and other organization affairs to continental conferences, so it divides into six differents of them grouped by geographical location. Argentina plays in CONMEBOL conference in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

. Due to World Cup rules that two teams of same confederation can not play in the same group in first round except for UEFA, it commonly faces teams which plays outside its continent most recently from Africa and Asia. Argentine national has never played versus an Oceanian ( OFC) squad.

Against debutants

'Albiceleste' has played against first-world-cup teams more than other, doing so 17 times, 7 of them being the first World Cup match ever. This list shows records versus those selections including all-debutants 1930 edition. Curiously, Argentina's debut was versus France which previously had played before. Sweden, Bulgaria, Greece, Japan, Ivory Coast, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Iceland played its first time against Argentina.
France, Mexico, Chile, United States, Uruguay, Northern Ireland, Haiti, East Germany, Jamaica and Croatia played in its first world cup but after first game.

Records and statistics

Most appearances

Lionel Messi Lionel Andrés Messi (; born 24 June 1987), also known as Leo Messi, is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a forward for club Paris Saint-Germain and captains the Argentina national team. Widely regarded as one of the ...

has captained the team in 19 matches.

's total of 26 matches is a record for the side and the most for a player at the FIFA World Cup.

Top goalscorers

Goalscoring by tournament

Awards

Team

* World Champions 1978 * World Champions 1986 * World Champions 2022 * 2nd Place 1930 * 2nd Place 1990 * 2nd Place 2014 * Fair Play Award 1978

Individual

* Golden Ball 1978:

* Golden Ball 1986:

* Golden Ball 2014:

* Golden Ball 2022:

* Silver Ball 1930:

* Bronze Ball 1990:

* Golden Boot 1930:

* Golden Boot 1978: Mario Kempes * Silver Boot 1986: Diego Maradona * Silver Boot 1998:

Gabriel Batistuta Gabriel Omar Batistuta (; born 1 February 1969) is an Argentine former professional footballer. During his playing career, Batistuta was nicknamed Batigol () as well as El Ángel Gabriel (; Spanish for ''Angel Gabriel''). Regarded as one of th ...

* Silver Boot 2006:

Hernán Crespo Hernán Jorge Crespo (; born 5 July 1975) is an Argentine professional football coach and former player. He is the current manager of Qatari club Al-Duhail. A prolific striker, Crespo scored over 300 goals in a career spanning 19 years. At in ...

* Silver Boot 2022:

* Golden Glove 1978:

Ubaldo Fillol Ubaldo Matildo Fillol (; born 21 July 1950), nicknamed ''el Pato'' (in English: "the Duck"), is an Argentine football coach and former goalkeeper. He took part in the 1974, 1978 (where he won the championship with his team and was voted Best Goalk ...

* Golden Glove 1990:

Sergio Goycochea Sergio Javier Goycochea (; born 17 October 1963) is an Argentine former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He is best known for helping his country reach the 1990 FIFA World Cup Final with his penalty kick saves. Career Goyco ...

(shared with

Luis Gabelo Conejo Luis Gabelo Conejo Jiménez (born 1 January 1960) is a Costa Rican former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He played mainly for Ramonense and Albacete, during a 17-year professional career. In 2009, the International Federa ...

) * Golden Glove 2022: Emiliano Martínez * Best Young Player 2022: Enzo Fernández * Most

Player of the Match In team sport, a player of the match or man of the match or woman of the match award is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chosen from the winn ...

Awards 2014 (4) and 2022 (5):

* Most

Awards over various World Cups by a single player (11):

José Pékerman José Néstor Pékerman Krimen (; born 3 September 1949) is an Argentine professional football coach and current manager of the Venezuela national team. As a youth level coach for Argentina, he won the FIFA World Youth Championship three times, ...

won the FIFA Fair Play Trophy as a coach with Colombia in 2014.

Standing alone

* Most played final against the same team: 3 times versus

in 1986, 1990 and 2014. * Most played against the same team in same stage: 5 times versus

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

in 1994, 2002, 2010, 2014 and 2018 all in group stage. Last three of them make most times consecutive, too. All won by Argentina by one goal difference. * Most played semifinals without losses: 5 times won in 1930 and 1986 while drawn in 1990 and 2014. Although in 1978 there weren't semifinals, Argentina won second round group ahead of Brazil which disputed 3rd place match against Italy. Even more, game against Brazil ended in a 0–0 draw. * Most played penalty shoot-outs: 7 (twice in 1990, 1998, 2006, 2014 and twice in 2022). * Fewest goals for a finalist: 1990 (5). * Youngest coach:

Juan José Tramutola Juan José Tramutola (21 October 1902 — 30 November 1968) was an Argentine football coach. He defended Argentina to bring home a gold medal from the 1929 Copa América and a silver medal from the inaugural World Cup in Uruguay. Along with ma ...

aged 27 years and 267 days in 1930. * Most hat-tricks scored in multiple editions:

in 1994 against Greece and in 1998 against Jamaica.

Shared

* Most played against the same team: 7 times versus

in 1958, 1966, 1986, 1990, 2006, 2010 and 2014. Shared with

vs Yugoslavia/Serbia and

vs Sweden. * Most won penalty shoot-outs: 6 times (twice in 1990, 1998, 2014 and twice in 2022). * Most coached finals: 2 times by

in 1986 and 1990. Shared with Italian

Vittorio Pozzo Vittorio Pozzo (; 2 March 1886 – 21 December 1968) was an Italian football player, manager and journalist. The creator of the '' Metodo'' tactical formation, Pozzo is regarded as one of the greatest managers of all time, and is the only man ...

(1934-1938), German

Helmut Schön Helmut Schön (15 September 1915 – 23 February 1996) was a German football player and manager. He is best remembered for his exceptional career as manager of the West German national team in four consecutive World Cup tournaments, including ...

(1966-1974), Brazilian

Mário Zagallo Mário Jorge Lobo Zagallo (; born 9 August 1931) is a Brazilian former professional football player, coordinator and manager, who played as a forward. Zagallo holds the record for World Cup titles in general with four titles in total. He was ...

(1970-1998) German Franz Beckenbauer who faced Bilardo in both 1986 and 1990, and French

Didier Deschamps Didier Claude Deschamps (; born 15 October 1968) is a French professional football manager and former player who has been manager of the France national team since 2012. He played as a defensive midfielder for several clubs, in France, Italy, ...

(2018-2022).

Miscellaneous

Argentina's game versus West Germany in 1958 featured a yellow jersey instead of the traditional light blue and white colors or blue as alternate. This was because both teams wore white jerseys, creating confusion. As the South American side forgot to bring an alternate one, they decided to borrow jerseys from local team club Malmö. Germany won 3–1. In the 1978 France - Hungary match something similar occurred. Both teams arrived to the match with white jerseys, so France was forced to borrow jerseys from Mar del Plata's local club Kimberley. France wore striped green and white keeping the traditional blue shorts and red socks. France won 3–1. The stadium

José María Minella José María Minella (1909–1981) was an Argentine football player and manager. He played for and managed Argentina's national team. Club career A midfielder, Minella started playing at local club Independiente of Mar del Plata. On 23 August ...

is the southernmost World Cup venue located at . Including France vs. Hungary, several matches of the 1978 World Cup were played in this stadium. Mar del Plata is in the south of Buenos Aires Province.

Referees

As a major CONMEBOL member, Argentina has been represented by match officials in nearly every tournament. In 2006,

Horacio Elizondo Horacio Marcelo Elizondo (born November 4, 1963 in Don Bosco, district of Quilmes) is an Argentine former international football referee best known for his officiation throughout the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Having achieved all his goals in refereeing ...

refereed the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: * Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

between

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

and

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, where he sent off

Zinedine Zidane Zinedine Yazid Zidane (; born 23 June 1972), popularly known as Zizou, is a French professional football manager and former player who played as an attacking midfielder. He most recently coached Spanish club Real Madrid and is one of the mos ...

after a headbutt to an opponent. In 2018,

Néstor Pitana Néstor Fabián Pitana (; born 17 June 1975) is an Argentine former football referee and former actor who refereed at the 2014 FIFA World Cup, 2015 Copa América and 2018 FIFA World Cup. He oversaw the opening match of the 2018 FIFA World Cup ...

did it when France played versus

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

. They are also the only two who refereed the opening game in the same tournament.

External links

Official website, at the Asociación del Fútbol Argentino's website

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Argentina At The Fifa World Cup

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

Countries at the FIFA World Cup

World Cup record

World Cup Finals

All matches

World Cup Finals

1930 v Uruguay

1978 v the Netherlands

1986 v West Germany

1990 v West Germany

2014 v Germany

2022 v France

Record by opponent

Head coaches

Against conferences

Against debutants

Records and statistics

Most appearances

Top goalscorers

Goalscoring by tournament

Awards

Team

Individual

Standing alone

Shared

Miscellaneous

Referees

See also

External links

Notes

References