Germany, shown here celebrating the 2018 Olympic silver medal in men's hockey, has fared better at the FIFA World Cup than any other IIHF member nation.
photo: © INTERNATIONAL ICE HOCKEY FEDERATION / MATT ZAMBONIN
When Spain defeated Argentina 1-0 for the 2026 FIFA World Cup title on 19 July, it was a dramatic moment for sports fans worldwide. However, life is even better when you can double your fun.
In other words, from an IIHF standpoint, if you’re a fan of a nation that performs well in both international football and ice hockey, you’ve really got it made.
So what happens when we combine results from the FIFA World Cup, the IIHF World Championship tournament and the Olympic men’s ice hockey tournament? Just for fun, let’s find out which nations have been the most successful across both football and hockey. But first, a little context.
Although hockey players often warm up by kicking balls around (“two-touch soccer,” as it’s called in North America), genuine overlap between the two sports is admittedly rare.
A few hockey stars have played high-level football. In the 1950s, future IIHF Hall of Famers Sven “Tumba” Johansson (Sweden) and Vsevolod Bobrov (Soviet Union) suited up for their national football teams. Olympic gold medalists Henrik and Daniel Sedin – NHL scoring champs with Vancouver – could have pursued football careers in Sweden, and Henrik’s 19-year-old son Valter recently cracked Canada’s national U20 squad. Longtime Canadian NHLer Peter Zezel was drafted by the NASL’s Toronto Blizzard and also played for the North York Rockets.
On the flipside, legendary Premier League goalkeeper Petr Cech (Chelsea, Arsenal) has parlayed his hockey passions into playing goal for five pro and semi-pro teams in the United Kingdom.
So let’s get down to brass tacks. The reality is that almost none of the top hockey nations doubles as a football powerhouse.
Canada – the all-time IIHF medals leader at the Olympics and Men’s Worlds – has played in just three FIFA World Cups (1986, 2022, 2026). It earned its only two wins this year out of 11 all-time matches.
At the World Cup, the Russians – who have won the second-most IIHF gold medals after Canada – peaked with a fourth-place finish as the Soviet Union (1966) and had a quarter-final exit as first-time hosts (2018). The U.S.’s best World Cup was third place in the inaugural 1930 tournament in Uruguay. Finland has never even qualified for a World Cup. You get the picture.
The closest thing to a true dual-sport menace? If you privilege football, it’s Germany. Including the era of West Germany, Deutschland has four FIFA World Cup titles (1954, 1974, 1990, 2014), four silver medals (1966, 1982, 1986, 2002), and four bronze medals (1934, 1970, 2006, 2010).
In other words, from an IIHF standpoint, if you’re a fan of a nation that performs well in both international football and ice hockey, you’ve really got it made.
So what happens when we combine results from the FIFA World Cup, the IIHF World Championship tournament and the Olympic men’s ice hockey tournament? Just for fun, let’s find out which nations have been the most successful across both football and hockey. But first, a little context.
Although hockey players often warm up by kicking balls around (“two-touch soccer,” as it’s called in North America), genuine overlap between the two sports is admittedly rare.
A few hockey stars have played high-level football. In the 1950s, future IIHF Hall of Famers Sven “Tumba” Johansson (Sweden) and Vsevolod Bobrov (Soviet Union) suited up for their national football teams. Olympic gold medalists Henrik and Daniel Sedin – NHL scoring champs with Vancouver – could have pursued football careers in Sweden, and Henrik’s 19-year-old son Valter recently cracked Canada’s national U20 squad. Longtime Canadian NHLer Peter Zezel was drafted by the NASL’s Toronto Blizzard and also played for the North York Rockets.
On the flipside, legendary Premier League goalkeeper Petr Cech (Chelsea, Arsenal) has parlayed his hockey passions into playing goal for five pro and semi-pro teams in the United Kingdom.
So let’s get down to brass tacks. The reality is that almost none of the top hockey nations doubles as a football powerhouse.
Canada – the all-time IIHF medals leader at the Olympics and Men’s Worlds – has played in just three FIFA World Cups (1986, 2022, 2026). It earned its only two wins this year out of 11 all-time matches.
At the World Cup, the Russians – who have won the second-most IIHF gold medals after Canada – peaked with a fourth-place finish as the Soviet Union (1966) and had a quarter-final exit as first-time hosts (2018). The U.S.’s best World Cup was third place in the inaugural 1930 tournament in Uruguay. Finland has never even qualified for a World Cup. You get the picture.
The closest thing to a true dual-sport menace? If you privilege football, it’s Germany. Including the era of West Germany, Deutschland has four FIFA World Cup titles (1954, 1974, 1990, 2014), four silver medals (1966, 1982, 1986, 2002), and four bronze medals (1934, 1970, 2006, 2010).
On the hockey side, the Germans have won historic silver medals at the Olympics (2018) and World Championship (2023), plus an earlier Worlds bronze (1976). This is about as good as it gets.
The Czechs – including the Czechoslovakia era – have also made their mark. The Czechoslovakian World Cup team earned silver medals twice (1934, 1962). Altogether, the Czechs boast 10 Olympic hockey medals – highlighted by their iconic 1998 gold medal at the inaugural “NHL Olympics” – and 48 World Championship medals.
It is important to note that Slovak hockey greats like Peter Stastny and Vladimir Dzurilla and football stars like Marian Masny and Karol Dobias made major contributions to Czechoslovakia’s success as well.
Sweden has not made as many World Cup finals as the Czechs, but has the edge in hockey. The blue-and-yellow team peaked at the World Cup with a second-place finish (1958) and has twice come third (1950, 1994). Tre Kronor’s nine all-time Olympic hockey medals include two golds (1994, 2006), and it also has 49 World Championship medals.
If being number one is all that matters to you, then Great Britain might be your dual-threat pick. The British won a shocking gold medal in hockey at the 1936 Olympics. And of course, England captured its first and only FIFA World Cup in 1966. No other nation has achieved that specific double. But overall, it’s slim pickings for the British, especially in the modern era.
France – two-time World Cup champions (1998, 2018) – would love to become a medal contender in hockey, especially as the host nation for the 2028 IIHF World Championship and 2030 Olympics. But Les Bleus have a lot of work to do hockey-wise. That holds even more true for developing IIHF member nations like Spain, Portugal, Argentina, and Brazil.
Here is an unofficial alphabetical list of selected IIHF member nations and their medal-winning records at the World Cup (FIFA), Olympics (OG-M), and World Championships (IIHF WM). IIHF World Championship medal totals exclude Olympic medals. All nations that have won OG-M or IIHF WM medals are included.
Argentina: FIFA (3G, 4S, 0B), OG-M (0G, 0S, 0B), IIHF WM (0G, 0S, 0B)
Austria: FIFA (0G, 0S, 0B), OG-M (0G, 0S, 0B), IIHF WM (0G, 0S, 2B)
Canada: FIFA (0G, 0S, 0B), OG-M (9G, 5S, 3B), IIHF WM (22/g, 14S, 7B)
Czechia (incl. Czechoslovakia): FIFA (0G, 2S, 0B), OG-M (1G, 4S, 5B), IIHF WM (13G, 11S, 20B)
Finland: FIFA (0G, 0S, 0B), OG-M (1G, 2S, 5B), IIHF WM (5G, 9S, 3B)
France: FIFA (2G, 2S, 2B), OG-M (0G, 0S, 0B), IIHF WM (0G, 0S, 0B)
Germany (incl. West Germany): FIFA (4G, 4S, 4B), OG-M (0G, 1S, 2B), IIHF WM (0G, 3S, 1B)
Great Britain: FIFA (1G, 0S, 1B), OG-M (1G, 0S, 1B), IIHF WM (0G, 2S, 1B)
Italy: FIFA (4G, 2S, 1B), OG-M (0G, 0S, 0B), IIHF WM (0G, 0S, 0B)
Latvia: FIFA (0G, 0S, 0B), OG-M (0G, 0S, 0B), IIHF WM (0G, 0S, 1B)
Norway: FIFA (0G, 0S, 0B), OG-M (0G, 0S, 0B). IIHF WM (0G, 0S, 1B)
Portugal: FIFA (0G, 0S, 1B), OG-M (0G, 0S, 0B), IIHF WM (0G, 0S, 0B)
Russia (incl. URS etc.): FIFA (0G, 0S, 0B), OG-M (9G, 3S, 2B), IIHF WM (19G, 7S, 4B)
Slovakia: FIFA (0G, 0S, 0B), OG-M (0G, 0S, 1B), IIHF WM (1G, 2S, 1B)
Spain: FIFA (2G, 0S, 0B), OG-M (0G, 0S, 2B), IIHF WM (0G, 0S, 0B)
Sweden: FIFA (0G, 1S, 2B), OG-M (2G, 3S, 4B), IIHF WM (11G, 17S, 18B)
Switzerland: FIFA (0G, 0S, 0B), OG-M (0G, 0S, 2B), IIHF WM (0G, 6S, 6B)
United States: FIFA (0G, 0S, 1B), OG-M (3G, 8S, 1B), IIHF WM (2G, 4S, 8B)
The Czechs – including the Czechoslovakia era – have also made their mark. The Czechoslovakian World Cup team earned silver medals twice (1934, 1962). Altogether, the Czechs boast 10 Olympic hockey medals – highlighted by their iconic 1998 gold medal at the inaugural “NHL Olympics” – and 48 World Championship medals.
It is important to note that Slovak hockey greats like Peter Stastny and Vladimir Dzurilla and football stars like Marian Masny and Karol Dobias made major contributions to Czechoslovakia’s success as well.
Sweden has not made as many World Cup finals as the Czechs, but has the edge in hockey. The blue-and-yellow team peaked at the World Cup with a second-place finish (1958) and has twice come third (1950, 1994). Tre Kronor’s nine all-time Olympic hockey medals include two golds (1994, 2006), and it also has 49 World Championship medals.
If being number one is all that matters to you, then Great Britain might be your dual-threat pick. The British won a shocking gold medal in hockey at the 1936 Olympics. And of course, England captured its first and only FIFA World Cup in 1966. No other nation has achieved that specific double. But overall, it’s slim pickings for the British, especially in the modern era.
France – two-time World Cup champions (1998, 2018) – would love to become a medal contender in hockey, especially as the host nation for the 2028 IIHF World Championship and 2030 Olympics. But Les Bleus have a lot of work to do hockey-wise. That holds even more true for developing IIHF member nations like Spain, Portugal, Argentina, and Brazil.
Here is an unofficial alphabetical list of selected IIHF member nations and their medal-winning records at the World Cup (FIFA), Olympics (OG-M), and World Championships (IIHF WM). IIHF World Championship medal totals exclude Olympic medals. All nations that have won OG-M or IIHF WM medals are included.
Argentina: FIFA (3G, 4S, 0B), OG-M (0G, 0S, 0B), IIHF WM (0G, 0S, 0B)
Austria: FIFA (0G, 0S, 0B), OG-M (0G, 0S, 0B), IIHF WM (0G, 0S, 2B)
Canada: FIFA (0G, 0S, 0B), OG-M (9G, 5S, 3B), IIHF WM (22/g, 14S, 7B)
Czechia (incl. Czechoslovakia): FIFA (0G, 2S, 0B), OG-M (1G, 4S, 5B), IIHF WM (13G, 11S, 20B)
Finland: FIFA (0G, 0S, 0B), OG-M (1G, 2S, 5B), IIHF WM (5G, 9S, 3B)
France: FIFA (2G, 2S, 2B), OG-M (0G, 0S, 0B), IIHF WM (0G, 0S, 0B)
Germany (incl. West Germany): FIFA (4G, 4S, 4B), OG-M (0G, 1S, 2B), IIHF WM (0G, 3S, 1B)
Great Britain: FIFA (1G, 0S, 1B), OG-M (1G, 0S, 1B), IIHF WM (0G, 2S, 1B)
Italy: FIFA (4G, 2S, 1B), OG-M (0G, 0S, 0B), IIHF WM (0G, 0S, 0B)
Latvia: FIFA (0G, 0S, 0B), OG-M (0G, 0S, 0B), IIHF WM (0G, 0S, 1B)
Norway: FIFA (0G, 0S, 0B), OG-M (0G, 0S, 0B). IIHF WM (0G, 0S, 1B)
Portugal: FIFA (0G, 0S, 1B), OG-M (0G, 0S, 0B), IIHF WM (0G, 0S, 0B)
Russia (incl. URS etc.): FIFA (0G, 0S, 0B), OG-M (9G, 3S, 2B), IIHF WM (19G, 7S, 4B)
Slovakia: FIFA (0G, 0S, 0B), OG-M (0G, 0S, 1B), IIHF WM (1G, 2S, 1B)
Spain: FIFA (2G, 0S, 0B), OG-M (0G, 0S, 2B), IIHF WM (0G, 0S, 0B)
Sweden: FIFA (0G, 1S, 2B), OG-M (2G, 3S, 4B), IIHF WM (11G, 17S, 18B)
Switzerland: FIFA (0G, 0S, 0B), OG-M (0G, 0S, 2B), IIHF WM (0G, 6S, 6B)
United States: FIFA (0G, 0S, 1B), OG-M (3G, 8S, 1B), IIHF WM (2G, 4S, 8B)