Spain won the 2026 World Cup: on 19 July at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford they beat Argentina 1-0 after extra time and became world champions for the second time in their history. The 2026 FIFA World Cup was the first with 48 teams and the first hosted by three countries at once — the USA, Canada and Mexico. There were 104 matches instead of 64, and the winner still came from a narrow circle of favourites. Below is the full story of the Spain World Cup 2026 campaign: the final, the Spain World Cup 2026 results, the Spain World Cup 2026 squad and the tournament’s top scorer.
2026 World Cup final: Spain 1-0 Argentina after extra time
For a long time the final looked like one-way traffic with no resolution. Spain had the ball and shot; Argentina, the reigning world champions, defended. The hero of normal time was goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez: he made 11 saves in the match, more than any goalkeeper in the history of World Cup finals.
The turning point came at the very end of the second half. In the third minute of added time Enzo Fernandez fouled Pau Cubarsi, received a second yellow card, and Argentina played the whole of extra time with ten men. In the 106th minute Ferran Torres, who had come on in the 62nd minute for Mikel Oyarzabal, picked up a loose ball in the box and drove it left-footed under the crossbar. It was his first goal of the tournament, and it was the winner in the final.
Just how one-sided the game was can be seen from one detail: Argentina’s first shot on goal came only in the 117th minute, and that effort from Lionel Messi was blocked. The next day Messi wrote that the pain was enormous and the wound would take a long time to heal, and congratulated the Spaniards on the title.
Who won the 2026 World Cup: Spain’s path and the match results
Because of the new format the champions had to play eight matches, more than any winner of previous years. Spain started cautiously and then won seven games in a row:
- Group H: Spain 0-0 Cape Verde (15 June, Atlanta);
- Group H: Spain 4-0 Saudi Arabia (21 June, Atlanta), goals from Lamine Yamal and Oyarzabal (brace);
- Group H: Uruguay 0-1 Spain, Alex Baena scored;
- Round of 32: Spain 3-0 Austria, another Oyarzabal brace;
- Round of 16: Portugal 0-1 Spain, the only goal from Mikel Merino;
- Quarter-final: Spain 2-1 Belgium, Fabian Ruiz and Merino scored;
- Semi-final: France 0-2 Spain (14 July, Arlington);
- Final: Spain 1-0 Argentina a.e.t. (19 July, East Rutherford).
Belgium’s goal in the quarter-final remained the only one Spain conceded at the tournament.
Spain — 2026 football world champions: records and awards
Luis de la Fuente’s Spain won the tournament the way almost nobody wins it these days, through defence. One goal conceded in eight matches is a record for world champions. Unai Simon kept seven clean sheets in eight matches and went 650 minutes without conceding, also a World Cup record.
La Roja (as the team is known outside Spain; at home they are simply called ‘La Roja’) collected several more records:
- their unbeaten run reached 38 matches, the longest in the history of men’s national teams; Spain had previously shared the old mark with Italy of 2018-2021;
- 65-year-old de la Fuente became the oldest coach to win the World Cup;
- Spain are the third reigning European champions to follow it up with the world title: before them it was achieved by West Germany in 1972-1974 and by Spain themselves in 2008-2010;
- Spain became the first country to hold the men’s and women’s world titles at the same time (the women’s team won the 2023 World Cup).
The individual awards also went to Madrid. The Golden Ball for best player went to Rodri, who in 2024 suffered a cruciate ligament and meniscus tear. The Golden Glove went to Simon, and the best young player award to 19-year-old Barcelona defender Pau Cubarsi, who played every match of the tournament without being substituted.
Spain World Cup 2026 squad
De la Fuente announced his final 26-man Spain World Cup 2026 squad on 25 May in Madrid. For the first time since 1950 there was not a single Real Madrid player in Spain’s World Cup squad: Dani Carvajal and Dean Huijsen did not even make the preliminary list. There were eight Barcelona players, though. Clubs are listed as they were when the squad was announced.
- Goalkeepers: Unai Simon of Athletic, David Raya of Arsenal, Joan Garcia of Barcelona.
- Defenders: Pau Cubarsi and Eric Garcia of Barcelona, Marcos Llorente and Marc Pubill of Atletico, Marc Cucurella of Chelsea, Aymeric Laporte of Athletic, Alejandro Grimaldo of Bayer, Pedro Porro of Tottenham.
- Midfielders: Gavi and Pedri of Barcelona, Martin Zubimendi and Mikel Merino of Arsenal, Rodri of Manchester City, Fabian Ruiz of PSG, Alex Baena of Atletico.
- Forwards: Lamine Yamal, Dani Olmo and Ferran Torres of Barcelona, Nico Williams of Athletic, Mikel Oyarzabal of Real Sociedad, Yeremy Pino of Crystal Palace, Borja Iglesias of Celta, Victor Munoz of Osasuna.
Fermin Lopez missed the tournament with a broken foot. Three Spaniards in the squad play for Arsenal, who won the Premier League in the spring largely thanks to set pieces, and for most of the champions the club season continued in the 2026/27 Champions League.
Lamine Yamal at the 2026 World Cup
Lamine Yamal, the Barcelona winger, was born on 13 July 2007 in Esplugues de Llobregat outside Barcelona; his father is from Morocco and his mother from Equatorial Guinea. He came to the 2026 World Cup as an 18-year-old and after a hamstring injury: in the first match against Cape Verde he came on only in the 71st minute. In his very first World Cup start, against Saudi Arabia, Yamal scored in the 10th minute and became the eighth youngest scorer in World Cup history. Only Pele in 1958 had previously opened the scoring in a World Cup match at 18 or younger.
That goal remained Yamal’s only one of the tournament, but his contribution is visible without looking at the goals column. He beat opponents in dribbles more often than anyone at the World Cup, was named player of the match against Austria and Belgium, and won a penalty in the semi-final with France. He turned 19 on the eve of that semi-final.
2026 World Cup semi-finals: Spain’s play and Argentina’s character
Two teams with different strengths reached the final. On 14 July in Arlington Spain comfortably saw off France, 2-0. Oyarzabal scored from the penalty spot in the 22nd minute after Lucas Digne’s foul on Yamal, and Pedro Porro doubled the lead in the 58th.
The next day in Atlanta Argentina salvaged what looked like a lost match against England. Anthony Gordon opened the scoring in the 55th minute, but in the 85th Enzo Fernandez equalised, and in added time Lautaro Martinez headed in a Messi cross, 2-1. Messi did not score in that match but provided both assists, taking his run to 11 consecutive World Cup matches with a goal or an assist.
The third-place match that will be remembered longer than some finals
Usually nobody cares about the consolation match. On 18 July in Miami England and France played out a 6-4. England led 4-0 at half-time, France pulled it back to 3-4, but Bukayo Saka completed a hat-trick with a penalty in the 87th minute, and after Ousmane Dembele’s goal Jude Bellingham finished it off. Third place is England’s best World Cup result since their 1966 triumph. For Didier Deschamps it was his last game in charge of France after 14 years.
2026 World Cup top scorer — Kylian Mbappe
Kylian Mbappe scored 10 goals at the tournament, two of them in the bronze-medal match. The last player to score ten goals at a single World Cup before him was Gerd Muller in 1970. Mbappe became the first player to win the Golden Boot twice (after 2022) and extended the World Cup goals record to 22.
The 2026 World Cup top scorers:
- France’s Kylian Mbappe — 10 goals;
- Argentina’s Lionel Messi — 8;
- Norway’s Erling Haaland and England’s Jude Bellingham — 7 each;
- England’s Harry Kane — 6.
Messi finished the tournament with 21 career World Cup goals, one fewer than Mbappe. At 39 he became the first player to start three World Cup finals and the oldest outfield player to start a final. Bellingham became the first Englishman to score seven goals at a single World Cup.
How the 48-team 2026 World Cup turned out
The main question before the start was whether the expansion would dilute the standard. The answer was mixed. On the one hand, there were plenty of thrashings in the group stage: Germany beat debutants Curacao 7-1, though the visitors still had their historic moment — Livano Comenencia scored the country’s first ever World Cup goal. On the other, the medals were ultimately contested by four giants: Spain, Argentina, England and France.
The hosts did not get past the round of 16, all three going out at the same stage. Canada lost 0-3 to Morocco on 4 July in Houston. Mexico went down 2-3 to England at the Azteca the next day, even though the English played with ten men from the 54th minute; before that nobody had beaten Mexico at the Azteca in World Cup matches. The USA, who won a knockout match for the first time since 2002 (2-0 against Bosnia and Herzegovina in the round of 32), lost 1-4 to Belgium in Seattle.
The 2026 World Cup’s numbers, though, were record-breaking. As early as 25 June, still during the group stage, FIFA announced that the World Cup attendance record had been broken — the 1994 mark, when matches in the same USA drew 3,587,538 spectators. The same day the scoring record fell too: Auston Trusty’s goal in the USA-Turkey match was the 173rd of the tournament, whereas 172 were scored in Qatar 2022. In total 308 goals were scored in 104 matches.
The next World Cup will be held from 8 June to 21 July 2030 in Spain, Portugal and Morocco; three commemorative matches to mark the centenary of the first tournament will be played in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay. Spain, who came to the 2026 World Cup as reigning European champions, will now defend two titles at once, and the world one partly at home.
Frequently asked questions about the 2026 World Cup
Who won the 2026 World Cup?
Spain. In the final they beat Argentina 1-0 after extra time, the only goal scored by Ferran Torres in the 106th minute.
Where and when was the 2026 World Cup final played?
On 19 July 2026 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford (New Jersey, USA). It was the 104th match of the tournament.
Who was the 2026 World Cup top scorer?
Kylian Mbappe with 10 goals. He was the first to win the Golden Boot twice; Lionel Messi had 8 goals.
How many times has Spain been football world champion?
Twice: in 2010 and 2026. Both times Spain came to the World Cup as reigning European champions.
How many goals did Lamine Yamal score at the 2026 World Cup?
One — against Saudi Arabia in the group stage. Yamal did win a penalty in the semi-final with France and beat opponents more often than anyone at the tournament.
How many teams played at the 2026 World Cup?
48 national teams, for the first time in history. They played 104 matches in the USA, Canada and Mexico and scored 308 goals.
