This is a record of Costa Rica'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 ...

. The FIFA World Cup, sometimes called the Football World Cup or the Soccer World Cup, but usually referred to simply as the World Cup, is an international

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

competition contested by the men's national teams of the members of ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The championship has been awarded every four years since the first tournament 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 ...

, except in 1942 and 1946, due to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. The tournament consists of two parts, the qualification phase and the final phase (officially called the ''World Cup Finals''). The qualification phase, which currently take place over the three years preceding the Finals, is used to determine which teams qualify for the Finals. The current format of the Finals involves 32 teams competing for the title, at venues within the host nation (or nations) over a period of about a month. The World Cup Finals is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world, with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the 2006 tournament final.2006 FIFA World Cup TV Coverage
(PDF), FIFA.com. Retrieved on June 6, 2007. Costa Rica's history at the FIFA World Cup is relatively recent, as they missed the tournament for sixty years since its inception in 1930 until their first appearance at the 1990 FIFA World Cup, the team's only participation at the tournament in the 20th century. The 21st century has seen Costa Rica qualifying to all editions of the FIFA World Cup, with the exception of the 2010 edition, which they narrowly missed. In

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 ...

, Costa Rica had its best performance at a FIFA World Cup. On 6 December 2013, Costa Rica was drawn into Group D with

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 ...

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 ...

, and

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, the only group in FIFA World Cup history to feature three former world champions who, at the time, stood within the top 10 of the

FIFA Men's World Ranking The FIFA Men's World Ranking is a ranking system for men's national teams in association football, led by Brazil . The teams of the men's member nations of FIFA, football's world governing body, are ranked based on their game results with the ...

. Expectations for Costa Rica were overwhelmingly low, and that the team would finish in the thirty-second place. Instead, Costa Rica topped the group undefeated, with two victories and one draw, and only one goal received. After defeating

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...

at the round of 16 through the penalty shoot-outs, and losing through the same means at the quarter-finals against the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, Costa Rica left the World Cup among the eight best teams, undefeated, and conceding only two goals, the least of all participants of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Sports-news outlets such as

Goal A goal is an idea of the future or desired result that a person or a group of people envision, plan and commit to achieve. People endeavour to reach goals within a finite time by setting deadlines. A goal is roughly similar to a purpose or ...

and '' Mundo Deportivo'' rank Costa Rica's performance in 2014 as one of the biggest surprises in FIFA World Cup history. Such a performance at the World Cup boosted Costa Rica's prestige in the international scene, as fifteen of the twenty-three players of the squad changed teams in the two transfer windows following the World Cup, including goalkeeper

Keylor Navas Keilor Antonio Navas Gamboa (born 15 December 1986), known as Keylor Navas, is a Costa Rican professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain and the Costa Rica national team. He was named CONCACAF Men's G ...

signing for Real Madrid. Both the Costa Rican performance at the 2014 World Cup and Navas' subsequent, successful stint with Real Madrid had a significant impact on Costa Rican sports, economy, tourism, and society. Costa Rica ranks third in FIFA World Cup appearances within the CONCACAF region, and first within the UNCAF subregion, in which they hold as many participations as the rest of Central America combined. Costa Rica remains the only Central American team to win a match at a World Cup, which they have done six times, and the only team within that region to qualify past the group stage, which they have done twice. The Borges family, namely father

Alexandre Guimarães Alexandre Henrique Borges Guimarães (born 7 November 1959) is a Costa Rican football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. He is the current manager of América de Cali. Born and raised in Brazil, Guimarães played for the ...

and son

Celso Borges Celso Borges Mora (born 27 May 1988), is a Costa Rican professional footballer who plays as a central midfielder for Liga FPD club Alajuelense and the Costa Rica national team. Early years His father is Alexandre Guimarães, Brazilian-born, C ...

, have accompanied Costa Rica through all the team's appearances at the FIFA World Cup. Guimarães participated as a player in

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 ...

, then as a coach in 2002 and 2006, while Celso played in

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the Unit ...

, 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 ...

Overall record

:''*Denotes draws including knockout matches decided via

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

.''

FIFA World Cup record by country

Matches

1990 FIFA World Cup

2002 FIFA World Cup

2006 FIFA World Cup

2014 FIFA World Cup

2018 FIFA World Cup

2022 FIFA World Cup

Player appearances

* 1990 FIFA World Cup squad * 2002 FIFA World Cup squad * 2006 FIFA World Cup squad *

2014 FIFA World Cup squad The 2014 FIFA World Cup was an international football tournament that was held in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014. The 32 national teams involved in the tournament were required to register a squad of 23 players, including three goalkeepers. O ...

* 2018 FIFA World Cup squad * 2022 FIFA World Cup squad

Goalscorers

Fifteen Costa Ricans have scored for the national team throughout their six participations at the FIFA World Cup. In addition to those players, Swiss goalkeeper

Yann Sommer Yann Sommer (born 17 December 1988) is a Swiss professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Bundesliga club Borussia Mönchengladbach and the Switzerland national team. Sommer completed his apprenticeship at Basel, where he won the Swi ...

scored an own goal for Costa Rica in 2018.

Individual awards

* Golden Glove 1990:

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 ...

''(shared)''

References

External links

FIFA.com – Costa Rica on FIFA.com
{{Countries at the FIFA World Cup Costa Rica

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 ...