World Cup 2026 winners and losers: England’s reckoning, Spain’s triumph and Ronaldo’s sad goodbye

The 2026 World Cup ended in New Jersey on Sunday with Spain deservedly crowned champions after a grim 1-0 win over 10-man Argentina, in one of the worst finals in living memory. A month of football produced far more than that scoreline suggests: coronations, farewells and a few debutants who refused to know their place. Here are the winners and losers — England very much included.

Winners: Spain’s watertight defence wins a World Cup

Spain won this World Cup at the back. Their defence was the most reliable unit in the tournament and it turned every knockout tie into a game played on their terms — slow, controlled, low-risk. It was not thrilling. It was extremely effective, and it is exactly the profile of team that tends to win tournaments.

The final itself was a poor advert for the sport, but nobody in the Spain camp will care. Winning ugly is still winning, and La Roja never once looked like a side that might unravel under pressure.

Winners: Mbappe and Messi light up the tournament

Kylian Mbappe was among the most decisive players at the World Cup, a reminder that no defence in world football has a genuine answer to him across ninety minutes. He left the tournament with his reputation enhanced even without the trophy.

Lionel Messi lost the final but leaves the World Cup stage with his standing intact. Dragging Argentina to the last match of a tournament at his age is not something that should be filed under failure, whatever the result.

Losers: Ronaldo, Neymar and Pulisic

Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar both endured sad farewells. Two players who defined the last 15 years of the sport almost certainly played their final World Cups here, and neither got the ending their careers deserved. Portugal and Brazil both went home without the prize.

Christian Pulisic missed his moment too. A home World Cup was the stage the United States captain had been building towards for a decade, and the tournament simply never handed him the game that would have defined his career.

England and Thomas Tuchel: what now?

England left this World Cup without the trophy again, and the familiar post-mortem begins. Thomas Tuchel inherited a squad packed with Premier League talent and the German’s brief was straightforward: turn that talent into knockout-round ruthlessness. That job is not finished.

The uncomfortable comparison is Spain. England’s players are, individually, as good as anyone’s — but Spain won this tournament by controlling tight games, and controlling tight games has been England’s weakness through multiple tournament cycles. That is the gap to close, not the talent one.

Winners: Curacao, Cape Verde and Uzbekistan justify 48 teams

The expanded 48-team format was widely criticised before a ball was kicked, and the debutants answered the criticism. Curacao, Cape Verde and Uzbekistan all reached their first World Cup and none of them turned up simply to make up the numbers.

Cape Verde goalkeeper Vozinha became one of the tournament’s most memorable figures, while Senegal, Egypt and Japan added to the sense that the gap between the traditional powers and everybody else is narrowing fast.

FAQ