10 iconic international teams that won back-to-back major tournaments
Lionel Messi’s Argentina are one game away from retaining their Copa America. If they do it, they’ll secure their status as one of the most successful international teams in football history.
It takes a lot to win a major international tournament – but to do it twice, or even three times, in a row is special. It’s something that’s only been achieved by a few iconic sides, while for the run to include a World Cup is even more rare.
We’ve identified 10 teams that have won successive major tournaments.
Note: we’re looking at the post-war era only here, but Italy won back-to-back World Cups in 1934 & 1938, Uruguay won back-to-back Copa America in 1916 & 1917, again in 1923 & 1924, and Argentina won back-to-back Copa America in 1927 and 1929.
We also haven’t included back-to-back competitions whereby World Cups took place in-between, whether or not they qualified.
Argentina – Copa America 1946, 1947, 1948
Going back a fair bit to kick things off.
The Albiceleste won three successive Copa America during the 12-year war period in which there weren’t any World Cups. They’d have surely been a contender to lift the Jules Rimet trophy when it returned in 1950 but they withdrew after the qualifying draw following a dispute with the Brazilian FA.
The 13-team 1950 World Cup saw an all South American final, in which Uruguay infamously beat Brazil on their own patch. Known as the Maracanazo, a footballing trauma that still partly defines Brazil’s collective footballing psyche to his day.
Argentina’s first World Cup would eventually arrive when they hosted the tournament in 1978.
Ghana – AFCON 1963, 1965
Egypt won the first two editions of the Africa Cup Of Nations, but they fell either side of the 1958 World Cup – which the Pharaohs didn’t qualify for after withdrawing.
That’s a bit of a technicality, admittedly, but there’s no such qualms over Ghana, who won two AFCONs between the World Cups of 1962 and 1966.
Ghana, too, were among 15 African national teams that boycotted the World Cup in England in protest at FIFA’s decision to offer no direct qualification.
West Germany – Euro 1972, World Cup 1974
West Germany won the four-team European Championships of 1972, beating hosts Belgium and the Soviet Union.
Two years later they won the World Cup on home soil, despite finishing behind East Germany in the group stage. In the Munich final, they came from a goal behind to beat Johan Cruyff’s Netherlands 2-1.
This was an era in which captain Franz Beckenbauer and talisman Gerd Muller rubberstamped their greatness in the club game, winning three successive European Cups between 1973 and 1975.
Muller remains the only player in football history to score in a World Cup final, a European Championship final and a European Cup final.
France – World Cup 1998, Euro 2000
For the millennial generation that came of age at the turn of the century, the Les Bleus side that featured the likes of Lilian Thuram, Didier Deschamps Zinedine Zidane and Thierry Henry remains a standard-bearer that’s tough to beat. Spain? Pfft.
France won their first World Cup on home soil in ’98, capped off with an iconic 3-0 victory over pre-tournament favourites Brazil in the final.
They further demonstrated their class in the Euros two years later, albeit needing a last-gasp equaliser from Sylvain Wiltord in the final against Italy to get their hands on the trophy.
READ: Golden Bleus: When France beat the world 5-1 & crowned their gilded age
Cameroon – AFCON 2000, 2002
“An African nation will win the World Cup before the year 2000,” Pele famously declared in 1977.
That didn’t come to pass, of course, and we’re still waiting for a nation from outside Europe or South American to do so.
Cameroon – featuring the likes of Rigobert Song, Lauren Geremi and Samuel Eto’o – went to Japan & South Korea as dark horses in 2002, having won a second successive AFCON earlier that year.
But they ended up finishing behind Germany and the Republic of Ireland, while Senegal stole their thunder as the African story of the tournament by famously beating holders France.
Brazil – World Cup 2002, Copa America 2004
True to their reputation, Brazil were international behemoths at the turn of the turn of the century. They reached back-to-back World Cup finals in ’98 and ’02 and won four out of five Copa America between 1997 and 2007.
During that period of almost unprecedented dominance, they only won back-to-back titles once.
They did hold the World Cup and Copa America simultaneously, having won them in ’94 and ’97, but technically they weren’t successive after a second-string squad were invited, and lost, the 1996 CONCACAF Gold Cup.
However, the Selecao did directly follow up their World Cup triumph in East Asia with an Adriano-inspired Copa America victory in Peru, drawing level with Marcelo Bielsa’s Argentina in injury time in the Lima final before beating the old enemy on penalties.
A longer run of successive tournament victories was denied by the World Cup final defeat to France in the ’98 final, a shock elimination to Honduras in the 2001 Copa America, and another defeat to Les Bleus in 2006.
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Egypt – AFCON 2008, 2010
Mohamed Salah, in terms of his overall achievements, is almost certainly the greatest Egyptian footballer of all time.
But the Liverpool star is unlikely to ever quite match the iconic status of the heroes that helped deliver three successive AFCON victories in 2006, 2008 and 2010. Chiefly Turkish Super Lig journeyman Ahmed Hassan, who started as captain in all three of those finals.
For the purposes of this article, we’re only counting the latter two tournaments because the 2006 World Cup fell after the first. For all their African dominance, Egypt failed to qualify for any World Cup in that era, only eventually ending an 18-year wait back in 2018.
Spain – Euro 2008, World Cup 2010, Euro 2012
With a squad that was dominated by legendary multiple Champions League winners from Barcelona and Real Madrid, we may never see an international side of this pedigree ever again.
Their style wasn’t to everybody’s tastes, but it was cohesive and brutally effective. La Roja didn’t concede a single goal in the knockout stages of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and capped off their imperial era with a stylish 4-0 mauling of Italy in the Euro 2012 final in Kyiv.
TRY A QUIZ: Can you name every member of Spain’s 2010 World Cup-winning squad?
Chile – Copa America 2015, 2016
Chile showed they were a coming force at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, in which they produced some outrageously entertaining football while ending Spain’s era of dominance.
They didn’t quite make it past the Round of 16, having pushed hosts Brazil to penalties, but they made a statement of intent that they were to be taken seriously.
Building on groundwork left by Marcelo Bielsa, their golden generation of talent peaked in the mid-2010s to achieve greatness.
In successive editions of the Copa America, including the extra Centenario edition held in the USA, they drew 0-0 with Messi’s Argentina in bitty, hard-fought finals before demonstrating their cojones in penalty shootout victories.
Argentina – Copa America 2021, World Cup 2022
Messi has already written his name into the history books, named Player of the Tournament on both counts as he captained Argentina to Copa America glory in Brazil and World Cup glory in Qatar the following year.
For his heroics on the biggest international stage, he ended up awarded with a record-extending seventh and eighth Ballon d’Or.
Argentina became only the third side in the history of South American football to hold the World Cup and Copa America simultaneously.
But he’s not done yet, with more history beckoning. They’re one game away from emulating that era-defining Spain side by bookending a World Cup with back-to-back continental titles.
This might be the way that Argentina’s all-time appearance-maker and goalscorer bows out. What a way to do it.