Brazil remains enthroned
Brazil, known as ‘O país do futebol’ or the country of football, tops the ranking of male national soccer teams in Latin America. Brazil is the only country in the world that has won the FIFA World Cup (881466) five times: in 1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, and 2002. Moreover, and despite recent corruption scandals, its main soccer association, the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF, as abbreviated in Portuguese) keeps growing. Before the COVID-19 impact, CBF’s net income surged by more than 250 percent to 190 million Brazilian reals— or approximately 47 million US dollars.How do other countries compare?
Having won the World Cup twice each, Uruguay and Argentina are also major soccer markets in the region. As of 2020-end, these two countries were among the top 10 teams in the FIFA World Ranking of men's national soccer teams. Founded by workers of a railway company over 120 years ago, Peñarol is today the Uruguayan club with the highest market value. While in Argentina, River Plate tops the market value ranking, closely followed by its nemesis, the Boca Juniors.Mexico has never won the World Cup, and the last time the country made it to the quarterfinals was in 1986. Regardless, Mexico has made it into the best ten national teams worldwide several times since then. Besides, two Mexican clubs were among the five most valuable Latin American soccer clubs in 2020: CD Guadalajara and CF Monterrey, which place right below Brazilian Corinthians and Palmeiras.
