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The countdown to the 2026 World Cupis on! Each day ahead of the tournament’s return to North America, Yahoo Sports will highlight an insight or moment that showcases just how grand the world’s biggest sporting spectacle has become — even beyond the expanded field of this year’s global event.
As the World Cup returns every four years, it feels like some countries make the tournament time and time again. But more than that, there are always a couple of familiar faces — the players who have played in more World Cup games than anyone else.
The list of players with the most tournament games comes with a few caveats — mainly, the format changes over the past few decades leading to a different number of games played in the knockout round. But the primary reason to rack up World Cup games is longevity and success: to attend several World Cups, and to lead your team far at the tournament.
Here are the five players with the most individual World Cup caps under their belt:
1. Lionel Messi (Argentina) — 26 World Cup matches (2006, 2010, 2014, 2018, 2022)
If we’re talking about longevity and success, it’s no surprise then that Lionel Messi is at the very top of that list. Messi, who made his World Cup debut for Argentina in 2006 as a teenager, has been the face of international soccer in part because of his showings at the tournament. That excellence led all the way up to 2022, when Messi led Argentina to its first World Cup championship since 1986 and took home the Golden Ball as the tournament’s best player.
In March, Argentina head coach Lionel Scaloni said that Messi is still weighing whether he wants to return for his sixth World Cup — meaning that Messi could continue widening the gap at the top of the list.
2. Lothar Matthaüs — 25 World Cup matches (1982, 1986, 1990, 1994, 1998)
Matthaüs, the former captain of the Germany national team, is one of few players to compete in five World Cups. He made his debut as a 21-year-old midfielder for Germany (then West Germany) at the 1982 World Cup in Spain. In 1990, Matthaüs helped lead Germany to its third title. That year, he scored four goals in the tournament, three of them penalty kicks.
Matthaüs played his final tournament games in 1998 after being named as a surprise injury replacement on the German roster. He played in four games that year, pulling him to the top of the appearances list, where he sat alone for more than a decade.
3. Miroslav Klose (Germany) — 25 World Cup matches (2002, 2006, 2010, 2014)
Klose, a German striker, made his international debut shortly before the 2002 World Cup; he then went on to start in seven games and score five goals in the tournament. Four years later, he did the same thing again: seven starts and five goals in 2006.
With ten more appearances across both 2010 and 2014, Klose joined Matthaüs with 25 all-time World Cup caps, achieving the feat in only four tournaments. Germany made the semifinals in all four of the years that Klose played, but it was in his final tournament, 2014, that the Germans took home their fourth World Cup title.
4. Paolo Maldini (Italy) — 23 World Cup matches (1990, 1994, 1998, 2002)
Maldini was a mainstay of the Italian team throughout the ‘90s and early 2000s as a starting center back and longtime captain. As a result, the defender put up a significant number of minutes in Italy’s World Cup appearances in that span.
An Italian third place finish in 1990 — on home soil, as well — and a second place finish in 1994 helped push Maldini over the edge, with seven games in each of those tournaments, followed by a trip to the 1998 quarterfinals and a loss in the 2002 Round of 16. Maldini played 100% of the minutes across those 23 games, as the captain made an indelible impact on the Italian back line.
5. Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) — 22 World Cup matches (2006, 2010, 2014, 2018, 2022)
Sorry Ronaldo, this is one stat where Messi has you firmly beat — for now. Ronaldo made his debut in the same year as Messi, and is also a member of the coveted five-World Cup club. But Ronaldo hasn’t pulled Portugal past a fourth-place finish across those five tournaments, cutting down on the number of total games played. Plus, Ronaldo was infamously benched during a knockout game in the 2022 World Cup after manager Fernando Santos expressed his discontent with Ronaldo’s attitude to being subbed off in the group stage.
Ronaldo is currently battling a hamstring injury that kept him out of Portugal’s March friendlies. But with Portugal set to headline Group K, the captain will hopefully get a chance to add to his tournament total.
