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Spain are the 2026 world champions — a 1-0 extra-time win over Argentina, settled by Ferran Torres. Our full result and analysis, plus what it means for Spain, Messi and the Golden Boot race.
Spain are champions of the world again. A 1-0 win over Argentina after extra time at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, decided by Ferran Torres in the 106th minute, sealed Spain’s second men’s World Cup and their first since 2010. It was the early hours of Monday morning back home — the final kicked off at 5:00am AEST — but it was worth setting the alarm for, and it followed the script we laid out in our World Cup Final preview, where our lean was firmly towards Spain.
Slavko Vinčić was the man in the middle for a final that turned on a late red card, an extra-time winner and a stubborn, saving-it-all-day performance from Argentina’s goalkeeper. For everything else across the tournament, our World Cup 2026 hub has the full picture.
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How Spain won the World Cup final
For long stretches this was a grind rather than a spectacle, and the game’s pivot point came late in normal time when Enzo Fernández picked up a second yellow card and was sent off. Argentina had to play the whole of extra time with ten men, and that extra body eventually told.
The winner arrived in the 106th minute. Nico Williams got to the byline and cut the ball back across the six-yard box, and Ferran Torres was there to finish it off. It was the kind of moment Spain had been threatening all night and the kind Argentina, a man light, simply could not answer.
Remarkably, Argentina did not manage a single shot across the 90 minutes. Their first real attempt did not come until around the 117th minute, when a Lionel Messi effort was blocked. By then Spain were controlling the ball, the tempo and the occasion, and saw the win out to lift the trophy.
Spain’s record-breaking tournament
This was a campaign built on control and meanness at the back. Spain conceded just one goal across all eight matches on their way to the title, and the final win stretched an unbeaten run reported at 38 games — enough to move them past Italy’s previous benchmark of 37.
There is a neat symmetry with 2010, too: like their first World Cup, this one was won 1-0 in extra time. Spain now hold both the Euro 2024 crown and the World Cup at the same time, making them reigning European and world champions and confirming this side as the dominant force in the international game.
Messi and Argentina fall short
For Argentina, and for Messi in particular, this was a painful way to bow out. At 39, this is widely expected to have been Messi’s final World Cup, and it ended in a final defeat rather than the send-off many had hoped to see. He finished the tournament without a goal in the final and could not conjure the moment his side needed.
The numbers tell the story of a team that never got going in the showpiece: no shot in the 90 minutes, and a first genuine attempt only late in extra time. Emiliano Martínez did his best to keep Argentina in it, producing saves throughout — including one to deny a Lamine Yamal free-kick — but playing the whole of extra time a man down after Enzo Fernández’s dismissal proved a bridge too far.
Golden Boot: Mbappé holds on
The tournament’s top-scorer race went the way of Kylian Mbappé, who finished with 10 goals to claim the Golden Boot for France. Messi ended the tournament on 8 and, with no goal in the final, could not close the gap. It caps another huge individual World Cup for Mbappé, even if France were not the side left standing at the end.