Argentina is the 7th best national football team in the world, study reveals
New study reveals Argentina has the 7th best national team in the world ahead of the Qatar World Cup – having won 31% of tournaments they have played in.
New research from TicketSource analysed data on every player to have played in Europe’s top five leagues in the last five seasons to find out who can be crowned the soccer MVP. The study also investigated the national teams that came out on top with the most trophies.
The world’s 10 best national teams:
| Rank | Team | World Cup | UEFA European Championship | Copa América | Africa Cup of Nations | CONCACAF Gold Cup | AFC Asian Cup | OFC Nations Cup | Proportion of wins |
| 1 | Italy | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 36% |
| 2 | Germany | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 33% |
| 2 | New Zealand | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 33% |
| 4 | Brazil | 5 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 32% |
| 4 | Uruguay | 2 | 0 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 32% |
| 6 | Australia | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 31% |
| 6 | Argentina | 2 | 0 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 31% |
| 8 | Egypt | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 25% |
| 9 | Mexico | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 24% |
| 10 | France | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 23% |
Taking first place is Italy, with the team winning 36% of the tournaments they’ve played in. The Blues are one of the most successful teams in history, winning the world cup 4 times and appearing in two finals too. They’ve also been victorious at the Euros twice.
The national teams in joint second place are Germany and New Zealand who both have 33% of their tournament appearances.
See more: FIFA’s World Cup standings are a great resource
The world’s 5 best young players predicted to make World Cup 2022 squads:
| Rank | Player | Nationality | Year of birth | Club appearances | Goals | Assists | MVP score/10 |
| 1 | Rodrygo | Brazil | 2001 | 101 | 17 | 16 | 9.41 |
| 2 | Bukayo Saka | England | 2001 | 97 | 17 | 15 | 9.11 |
| 3 | Florian Wirtz | Germany | 2003 | 60 | 13 | 16 | 7.66 |
| 4 | Jude Bellingham | England | 2003 | 77 | 6 | 15 | 6.83 |
| 5 | Jamal Musiala | Germany | 2003 | 71 | 13 | 7 | 6.27 |
Brazil and Real Madrid star Rodrygo tops the list of best young players, already having racked up over 100 appearances for Los Blancos in the last five years. Aged just 21, he’s already established himself as part of one of the biggest teams in the world and is seen as a potential successor to Neymar in the Brazil side.In second is England’s Bukayo Saka, who misses by virtue of having just four fewer appearances and one fewer assist than Rodrygo. Saka has already featured at a major international tournament, missing the crucial penalty as England reached the Euro 2020 final, but will be hoping to go one better in Qatar.Further findings:
- The players topping the list of most appearances are Sadio Mané, Ángel Correa and Karim Benzema with 224, 220 and 218 games played in the last five seasons respectively.
- Lionel Messi is thought by many to be the greatest player ever to play the game, and the numbers back him up. Messi is one of a handful of players appearing at the World Cup to have played over 200 league and European games in the last five years and is the second-highest goal scorer and assist maker.
