Lionel Messi is South America’s No. 1 star in the past and present, and Vinicius looks to succeed him in the future. Leo’s Argentina and Vini’s Brazil are also the top contenders at Copa America 2024. But be careful, it’s not certain that Albiceleste or Selecao will take the throne in America…
Not the World Cup (1930), not even the EURO (1960), but the Copa America is the oldest continental tournament at the national team level. The first South American Football Championship was held in 1916. And if EURO only witnessed two unexpected champions, Denmark (1992) and Greece (2004), then surprisingly is the specialty of Copa America.
Defending champion Argentina is currently the team with the most championships, but has only been crowned 15 times like Uruguay. Albiceleste even just equaled La Celeste’s achievement with the title in the most recent Copa America in 2021. And Brazil is behind the above duo with 9 championships.
And yet, Argentina (2021) and Brazil (2019) may have been crowned in the last two tournaments. But looking more broadly, in the last 5 Copa Americas, there were 3 times the throne did not belong to the two giants of South America. Specifically, Uruguay was crowned in 2011, before Chile achieved a double championship in 2015 and the 2016 Copa America Centenario, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the tournament.
