Winning the FIFA World Cup is the ultimate prize for any professional footballer, and some are lucky enough to do it more than once.
Of the 445 players on the winning team, only 21 players have won two or more World Cups and one player stands above the rest.
Which player has won the most World Cups?
The legendary Pele is the only player to win three World Cups, winning the first in the 1958 edition in Sweden as a 17-year-old in a tournament where he took the world by storm.
He also won in Chile four years later but could not play in the final due to injury.
After failing to win in 1966, Pele and Brazil waltzed to more glory in Mexico in 1970, beating Italy 4-1 in the final. Their 1970 team is regarded as the greatest World Cup team of all time.
Which players have won the most World Cups?
Another 20 players have won more than one World Cup, all but one of whom are Brazilian or Italian.
It also includes Brazilian legends Cafu and Ronaldo, who were part of the victorious Brazil teams of 1994 and 2002.
The 2002 tournament in Japan and South Korea was one of Ronaldo’s best as a player, scoring eight goals, including both goals in a 2–0 win over Germany in the final.
Other notable players in this category are Daniel Passarella, who captained Argentina to victory on home soil in 1978 and was part of the winning team in Mexico in 1986.
Brazil’s Garrincha played a key role in back-to-back World Cup wins for Italy in 1958 and 1962, as did Giuseppe Meza in 1934 and 1938.
Three players also have the distinction of winning multiple tournaments without actually playing a match.
Castilho and Pepe achieved this feat for Brazil in 1958 and 1962, while Guido Massetti also did not use it in victories over Italy in 1934 and 1938.
Here is the complete list of players who have won the World Cup more than once:
| Player | Team | Title | Years |
| Pele | Brazil | 3 | 1958, 1962, 1970 |
| Bellini | Brazil | 2 | 1958, 1962 |
| Cafu | Brazil | 2 | 1994, 2002 |
| Ronaldo | Brazil | 2 | 1994, 2002 |
| Castilho | Brazil | 2 | 1958, 1962 |
| Didi | Brazil | 2 | 1958, 1962 |
| Djalma Santos | Brazil | 2 | 1958, 1962 |
| Giovanni Ferrari | Italy | 2 | 1934, 1938 |
| Garrincha | Brazil | 2 | 1958, 1962 |
| Gilmer | Brazil | 2 | 1958, 1962 |
| Guido Masetti | Italy | 2 | 1934, 1938 |
| Mauro | Brazil | 2 | 1958, 1962 |
| Giuseppe Meazza | Italy | 2 | 1934, 1938 |
| Eraldo Monzeglio | Italy | 2 | 1934, 1938 |
| Nilton Santos | Brazil | 2 | 1958, 1962 |
| Daniel Passarella | Argentina | 2 | 1978, 1986 |
| Pepe | Brazil | 2 | 1958, 1962 |
| Vava | Brazil | 2 | 1958, 1962 |
| Mário Zagallo | Brazil | 2 | 1958, 1962 |
| Zito | Brazil | 2 | 1958, 1962 |
| Zozimo | Brazil | 2 | 1958, 1962 |
Who won the most matches in the World Cup?
Germany’s Miroslav Klose is the player who has won the most matches in the World Cup.
Beginning in 2002 when he was part of the team that finished runner-up, he has won 17 matches in four tournaments.
In each of these, Germany finished in the top four and their crowning glory came in 2014 when they beat Argentina 1-0 in the final at the famous Maracana in Rio de Janeiro.
This is not the only World Cup record to Klose’s name either.
Who has scored the most goals in the World Cup?
Klose also holds the record for most goals in a World Cup, scoring 16 times.
He scored five goals in 2002 – all from headers – including a hat-trick against Saudi Arabia.
He scored five more goals in 2006 and four in 2010, equaling Gerd Müller’s German World Cup scoring record.
At the 2014 tournament in Brazil, a goal in the group stage against Ghana meant he tied Brazil’s Ronaldo for the all-time record with 15 goals.
It was a record he fittingly lost against Brazil in the semi-final, as he scored the second goal in a 7-1 rout of Brazil, one of the most remarkable World Cup games in history.