The weight of the Yellow Jersey

The 2026 World Cup kicks off today, and few nations arrive at the tournament surrounded by as much expectation as Brazil.

The Amarelinha take to the pitch with a unique record: they are the only national team to have participated in every edition of the World Cup, having played 114 matches since the inaugural tournament in 1930.

Brazil also remains the most successful team in the competition’s history, with five titles to its name (1958, 1962, 1970, 1994 and 2002). Italy and Germany are close behind, with four each. This year, the South Americans are dreaming of a long-awaited sixth title, which would further extend Brazil’s lead at the top of the list of champions.

As Italy failed to qualify for this World Cup, the main threat to the Brazilian record comes from Germany.

The battle for the records

The Germans are also close behind in another key statistic: the national team with the most goals scored in World Cup history.

Brazil still leads this ranking, with 237 goals, but Germany is very close behind, with 232.

In the last two World Cups – in 2018 and 2022 – the Seleção scored eight goals in each tournament. Will that number be higher this time? The Brazilian attack has had far more productive spells in the past. In 1950, for example, the Seleção scored 22 goals, but even that wasn’t enough to win the title, which ultimately went to Uruguay.

Of the 237 goals scored by Brazil in the history of the World Cup, 85 different players have left their mark for the national team.

At the top of the list of Brazilian top scorers in the competition is Ronaldo, winner of two Ballon d’Or awards. The former striker scored 15 goals across three tournaments – 1998, 2002 and 2006 – and remains the country’s all-time leading World Cup goalscorer. In the competition’s overall rankings, he sits in second place, behind only Germany’s Miroslav Klose, who found the net 16 times.

Neymar with his sights set on history

Neymar, the 34-year-old Santos star, heads into his fourth World Cup with the national team hoping to finally put Brazil back at the top of world football.

Nominated nine times for the Ballon d'Or, Neymar is the all-time top scorer for the Brazilian national team, with 79 goals. In World Cups, however, he does not yet feature among the country’s top three scorers. With eight goals scored across three tournaments, he would need to score seven more in this World Cup to catch up with Ronaldo, or eight to overtake him.

Scoring eight goals in a single World Cup is a rare feat. Kylian Mbappé, star of the French national team and Neymar’s former teammate at Paris Saint-Germain, reached that mark just four years ago. But even that would not be enough for Neymar to equal the Brazilian record in a single edition of the tournament. That feat remains in the hands of Ademir de Menezes, who scored nine goals in the 1950 World Cup.

Top scorers and unforgettable records

Four other Brazilians also finished their respective World Cups as the competition’s top scorers: Leônidas da Silva in 1938, with seven goals; Garrincha and Vavá in 1962, with four goals each; and Ronaldo in 2002, with eight goals.

It was precisely at the 1950 World Cup that Brazil recorded their biggest ever World Cup victory in a single match: a 7–1 win over Sweden. Ademir de Menezes scored four of Brazil’s seven goals in that match.

As well as Neymar, three other players called up by Ancelotti for the 2026 tournament have already scored in World Cups: Casemiro, Lucas Paquetá and Vinícius Júnior, who each scored a goal in the 2022 edition.

What can we expect from Brazil in 2026?

As is the case with every World Cup, the eyes of the world will be on Brazil.

Even without having won football’s most coveted trophy for over two decades, the South American side remains one of the tournament’s greatest powers. After all, no country has won more titles or scored more goals at World Cups.

How far will Ancelotti’s team go in 2026? How many goals will they score? Which records will be maintained? And which ones might be broken?

From today, the answers to these questions will begin to unfold.

Brazil at World Cups (1930–2022)