How have debutant teams performed at the FIFA World Cup?

Curacao World Cup qualifying 2025

Four nations will make debuts at the 2026 World Cup, with Cape Verde, Curacao, Jordan and Uzbekistan set to grace the grandest stage in international football for the first time. It will be the tournament with the most newcomers since 2006 and all will have ambitions of ending a 16-year wait for a debutant to reach the knockout stages.

It takes the total number of nations to have participated in the World Cup up to 84 and, among them, there have been some excellent debutants. Technically, Uruguay and Italy are the best performing newcomers in the competition's history, both winning the trophy on debut in 1930 and 1934, respectively. The next best performances would then come from Argentina (1930) and Czechoslovakia (1934), who each finished as runners-up.

However, given the first World Cup came in 1930, these achievements came at a time when most teams were debutants. So, who has done well in the years since?

Since 1934, the best tournament for first-timers collectively was 1958 as all three - Northern Ireland, the Soviet Union and Wales - reached the quarter-finals. There was also a 100 per cent record for debutants making it beyond the first stage in 1966, as both North Korea and Portugal met in the quarter-finals. The latter would prevail and then run England close in the semis, before losing 2-1 to the eventual champions.

Excluding the first two World Cup tournaments, making the semi-finals remains the best performance for debutants, with one other team joining Portugal over the years in getting that far in that first tournament. Others have come close, too, with three nations making the quarter-finals on debut since 1994.

This summer, though, simply making the knockout stages will be a good tournament for the newcomers, with it 16 years since one did so. That was Slovakia, who beat Italy in 2010 to send the holders crashing out in the group stages. Could Cape Verde, Curacao, Jordan or Uzbekistan follow in their path?

GOAL details the debuts of all 84 nations to have played at the World Cup...

Uruguay 1930 World Cup winners

Uruguay

Year of debut: 1930

Performance: Champions

Luis Monti Argentina 1930 FIFA World Cup

Argentina

Year of debut: 1930

Performances: Runners-up

Poland, 1938 World Cup

Belgium

Year of debut: 1930

Performances: Group stage

Bolivia

Year of debut: 1930

Performance: Group stage

Brazil 1930

Brazil

Year of debut: 1930

Performance: Group stage

Chile

Year of debut: 1930

Performance: Group stage

France, 1930 World Cup

France

Year of debut: 1930

Performance: Group stage

Manuel Rosas Mexico 1930

Mexico

Year of debut: 1930

Performance: Group stage

Paraguay

Year of debut: 1930

Performance: Group stage

Peru

Year of debut: 1930

Performance: Group stage

Romania

Year of debut: 1930

Performances: Group stage

USA

Year of debut: 1930

Performance: Semi-final

Yugoslavia (now Serbia)

Year of debut: 1930

Performance: Semi-final

Vittorio Pozzo, Italy 1934 World Cup

Italy

Year of debut: 1934

Performance: Champions

Czech Republic, 1934 World Cup

Czechoslovakia (now Czechia)

Year of debut: 1934

Performance: Runners-up

Germany

Year of debut: 1934

Performance: Third place

Austria, 1934 World Cup

Austria

Year of debut: 1934

Performance: Fourth place

Egypt

Year of debut: 1934

Performance: Round of 16

Switzerland

Year of debut: 1934

Performance: Quarter-final

Egypt v hungary 1934

Hungary

Year of debut: 1934

Performance: Quarter-final

Netherlands

Year of debut: 1934

Performance: Round of 16

Ricardo Zamora, Spain 1934 World Cup

Spain

Year of debut: 1934

Performance: Quarter-final

Sweden

Year of debut: 1934

Performance: Quarter-final

Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia)

Year of debut: 1938

Performance: Round of 16

Norway vs Italy, 1934 World Cup

Norway

Year of debut: 1938

Performance: Round of 16

Brazil vs Poland, 1938 World Cup

Poland

Year of debut: 1938

Performance: Round of 16

Cuba vs Romania, 1938 World Cup

Cuba

Year of debut: 1938

Performance: Quarter-final

England, 1950 World Cup

England

Year of debut: 1950

Performance: First round

South Korea

Year of debut: 1954

Performance: Group stage

Uruguay vs Scotland, 1954 World Cup

Scotland

Year of debut: 1954

Performance: Group stage

West Germany vs Turkey, 1954 World Cup

Turkey

Year of debut: 1954

Performance: Group stage

West Germany vs Northern Ireland, 1958 World Cup

Northern Ireland

Year of debut: 1958

Performance: Quarter-final

Soviet Union, 1958 World Cup

Soviet Union (now Russia)

Year of debut: 1958

Performance: Quarter-final

Wales, 1958 World Cup

Wales

Year of debut: 1958

Performance: Quarter-final

Bulgaria

Year of debut: 1962

Performance: Group stage

Colombia

Year of debut: 1962

Performance: Group stage

Eusebio, Portugal, 1966 World Cup

Portugal

Year of debut: 1966

Performance: Quarter-final

North Korea, 1966 World Cup

North Korea

Year of debut: 1966

Performance: Quarter-final

El Salvador

Year of debut: 1970

Performance: Group stage

Morocco, 1970 World Cup

Morocco

Year of debut: 1970

Performance: Group stage

Israel, 1970 World Cup

Israel

Year of debut: 1970

Performance: Group stage

Australia, West Germany, 1974 World Cup

Australia

Year of debut: 1974

Performance: Group stage

Poland vs Haiti, 1974 World Cup

Haiti

Year of debut: 1974

Performance: Group stage

Zaire vs Yugoslavia, 1974 World Cup

Zaire (now DR Congo)

Year of debut: 1974

Performance: Group stage

West Germany East Germany 1974

East Germany

Year of debut: 1974

Performance: Second round (Quarter-final)

Iran

Year of debut: 1978

Performance: Group stage

Tunisia, 1978 World Cup

Tunisia

Year of debut: 1978

Performance: Group stage

Paul Breitner of West Germany, Mustapha Dahleb of Algeria, 1982 World Cup

Algeria

Year of debut: 1982

Performance: Group stage

Cameroon

Year of debut: 1982

Performance: Group stage

Honduras

Year of debut: 1982

Performance: Group stage

Kuwait 1982

Kuwait

Year of debut: 1982

Performance: Group stage

New Zealand 1982 World Cup team

New Zealand

Year of debut: 1982

Performance: Group stage

Canada, France, 1986 World Cup

Canada

Year of debut: 1986

Performance: Group stage

Denmark, Spain, 1986 World Cup

Denmark

Year of debut: 1986

Performance: Round of 16

Iraq, 1986 World Cup

Iraq

Year of debut: 1986

Performance: Group stage

UAE, 1990 World Cup

United Arab Emirates

Year of debut: 1990

Performance: Group stage

Costa Rica

Year of debut: 1990

Performance: Round of 16

Republic of Ireland, 1990 World Cup

Republic of Ireland

Year of debut: 1990

Performance: Quarter-final

Argentina, Greece, 1994 World Cup

Greece

Year of debut: 1994

Performance: Group stage

Nigeria 1994 World Cup

Nigeria

Year of debut: 1994

Performance: Round of 16

Saudi Arabia, 1994 World Cup

Saudi Arabia

Year of debut: 1994

Performance: Round of 16

Jamaica, 1998 World Cup

Jamaica

Year of debut: 1998

Performance: Group stage

Japan, 1998 World Cup

Japan

Year of debut: 1998

Performance: Group stage

South Africa, 1998 World Cup

South Africa

Year of debut: 1998

Performance: Group stage

Hrvatska Croatia 1998

Croatia

Year of debut: 1998

Performance: Semi-final

China, 1998 World Cup

China

Year of debut: 2002

Performance: Group stage

Luis Hernández México Ecuador 2002

Ecuador

Year of debut: 2002

Performance: Group stage

Slovenia, 2002 World Cup

Slovenia

Year of debut: 2002

Performance: Group stage

France Senegal 2002

Senegal

Year of debut: 2002

Performance: Quarter-final

Angola 2006

Angola

Year of debut: 2006

Performance: Group stage

Ivory Coast 2006

Ivory Coast

Year of debut: 2006

Performance: Group stage

Togo 2006

Togo

Year of debut: 2006

Performance: Group stage

Trinidad and Tobago, 2006 World Cup

Trinidad and Tobago

Year of debut: 2006

Performance: Group stage

Shilla Illiasu Ghana 2006 World Cup

Ghana

Year of debut: 2006

Performance: Round of 16

Vyacheslav Sviderskyi Ukraine 2006

Ukraine

Year of debut: 2006

Performance: Quarter-final

De Rossi v Slovakia 2010

Slovakia

Year of debut: 2010

Performance: Round of 16

kenneth omeruo nigeria edin dzeko bosnia 2014 world cup group F 21062014

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Year of debut: 2014

Performance: Group stage

Gylfi Sigurdsson Iceland 2018

Iceland

Year of debut: 2018

Performance: Group stage

Panama 2018 Ergebnisse WM Kader

Panama

Year of debut: 2018

Performance: Group stage

Abdelkarim Hassan Meshaal Barsham Hassan Alhaydos Qatar 2022

Qatar

Year of debut: 2022

Performance: Group stage

Leandro Bacuna Curacao 2026

Curacao

Year of debut: 2026

Performance: TBC

Gilson Tavares Cape Verde 2026

Cape Verde

Year of debut: 2026

Performance: TBC

Ali Olwan Jordan 2025

Jordan

Year of debut: 2026

Performance: TBC

Abdukodir Khusanov Uzbekistan 2026

Uzbekistan

Year of debut: 2026

Performance: TBC