Spain crowned FIFA World Cup champions for second time

• Spain became world champions for the second time beating Argentina 1-0 in FIFA World Cup 2026 final in New York New Jersey stadium in East Rutherford on July 20.

• This was a head-to-head worthy of the World Cup final, bringing together the champions of Europe and South America, the top two sides in FIFA’s world ranking, each of them unbeaten on the road to the final.

• Although Spain dominated the game from start to finish, they had to wait until the 106th minute to finally find a way past Emiliano Martinez. 

• Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez made a string of saves to deny Spain.

• With the teams locked at 0-0 after 90 minutes, substitute Ferran Torres scored the only goal of the match in the 106th minute to secure the title for Spain.

• It shattered Lionel Messi’s dreams of a triumphant farewell to football’s greatest stage.

• Spain previously won the title in 2010.

• This title, combined with the Women’s World Cup won by Spain in 2023, makes the European nation the first to hold both the men’s and women’s titles simultaneously. 

Other interesting points of the World Cup final:

• Spain’s total of one goal conceded is the lowest for a World Cup-winning team in a single edition of the tournament.

• Spain’s goalkeeper Unai Simon has set a record for most clean sheets in a World Cup tournament with seven.

• Spain’s Lamine Yamal and Pau Cubarsi, both 19, are the fourth and fifth teenagers to have played in a World Cup final. As with Pele (aged 17 in 1958), Giuseppe Bergomi (18 in 1982) and Kylian Mbappe (19 in 2018), they have all ended up on the winning side.

• At 65 years and 28 days old, Luis de la Fuente has become the oldest World Cup-winning coach, surpassing the mark of his compatriot Vicente del Bosque who was 59 years and 220 days when winning Spain's first world title.

• At 39 years and 25 days old, Lionel Messi became the oldest outfield player to appear in a World Cup final, breaking the record of Sweden’s Gunnar Gren, who faced Brazil in 1958 aged 37 years and 241 days. Substitute Nicolas Otamendi beat Gren's record too to become the second-oldest outfield player (38 years, 157 days).

• Messi is also now the second player to have appeared in three World Cup finals, doing so in 2014, 2022 and 2026, after Brazil’s Cafu, who played in the 1994, 1998, 2002 deciders.

• A total of over 68 lakh fans attended the record-setting 23rd edition of the tournament, which was the first to be co-hosted by three countries — Canada, Mexico and the United States. 

• Collectively, these supporters witnessed a stunning 308 goals across the tournament’s 16 stadiums, as the world united on and off the pitch for a 39-day celebration of football.