Yeah, I was talking federation, not current iteration.
For sure, but they don’t.
Also if Argentina had the economic power of the Spanish Liga and we could have all our players here instead of across the Atlantic we would probably won more world cups.
I like your chances for 2026.
If we’re going pure trophy count, Brazil has 8 tournaments to Argentina’s 7.
Brazil is the best NT of all time no doubt about that, and I’m not seriously saying that Argentina is the best NT of the last 50 years (I’m clarifying this because I worry you may be taking my ‘arrogant argentinian’ act seriously), I was just riffing on iamatractorboy’s post and the fact the in the last 50 years we have the most world cups (which is mostly an artifact of having started to win WC’s the year I was born)
That said… we are one of the best too.
I mean, I think it’s an interesting question on its own. And I don’t think Argentina is a bad candidate. I think if you give a little leeway in the 50 years and count West Germany and Germany as one team, then I think they’re a clear winner. If not, probably a lot of discussion on peak vs consistency and relative value of different accomplishments.
Germany (and former West Germany): 4 WCs and 3 Euros all in all, 3 WCs and 2 Euros in the last fifty years, so not ahead of Brazil. But we played 8 WC and 6 Euro finals in total, which is a record.
Not ahead on total trophies, but, IMO, the Copa America should be rated quite a bit lower than both the WC and the Euros. Two main reasons: 1) the field is a lot shallower 2) there have been a lot more Copa Americas played (19 vs 13 in the last 50 years)
Also, I asked for some squishiness on the 50 years since West Germany won the 1972 Euros. A shame to split Beckenbauer / Muller era in half.
I’m going to claim one trophy for England: biggest underachievers. Not that I feel we are entitled to win things, just that our tournament record vs other comparable western-European countries (Spain, France, Italy, (West) Germany) is shocking.
2 WCs in the last fifty years, the 1974 World Cup final was 50 years and 14 days ago… 
Two Copa a year? Man, inflation affects everything in South America.
That was only once, in the 1960s, for 30 minutes…
Nah, seriously, the Copa has never had a regular schedule, in my lifetime it used to take place once every 2 years, there was one in 2015 and another in 2016 because it was the centenary of the first one. Now it looks like it’s going to be every 4 years, which I don’t like.
Every 2 years was best IMHO, because you had World Cup, Copa America, Olympics, Copa America, World Cup… and so on.
Now we will have years without playing anything, except World Cup qualifiers, and even those are devalued because with the new 48 teams WC practically everybody qualifies.