Who has won the most World Cup titles as a player?

Every player wants to win every title possible, but this one has a different meaning for everyone. Winning the World Cup with your country is what could make a player feel the most pride.

There aren’t many players who can say they are world champions. None has ever been more successful than Pelé, who remains the player with the most World Cup titles after lifting the trophy three times.

Brazil are the most successful team in the competition with five titles, helped by some of the greatest players in history. Pelé was part of the teams that won the World Cup in 1958, 1962 and 1970.

Players with two World Cup titles

The list of players with three World Cup titles has just one name, but many others have managed to win the competition twice. It makes sense that most of them come from Brazil and Italy, the only countries to win back-to-back World Cup titles.

A total of 20 players have won exactly two titles: Giovanni Ferrari, Guido Masetti, Giuseppe Meazza and Eraldo Monzeglio for Italy; Daniel Passarella for Argentina; and Bellini, Cafu, Castilho, Didi, Djalma Santos, Garrincha, Gilmar, Mauro, Nílton Santos, Pepe, Ronaldo, Vavá, Mário Zagallo, Zito and Zózimo for Brazil.

This group shows how dominant Brazil became from 1958 onward, as 15 of the 20 players are Brazilian. Cafu’s place on the list is particularly remarkable because his two titles came eight years apart, winning in 1994 after playing almost the entire final and again in 2002 as Brazil’s captain. Ronaldo and Passarella are the other players who won two titles in non-consecutive editions, albeit they were not important factors in one of those triumphs.

List of players with more than one title