As the World Cup wraps up, the off-field battle for eyeballs, ad dollars and viral fame has already crowned some champions
It'll be Spain's Lamine Yamal, left, facing off against Argentina's Lionel Messi on Sunday. But it won't be the first time they've met.
It's hard to believe that the 2026 FIFA World Cup is coming to a close.
Spain and Argentina will face off in the championship match at 3 p.m. Eastern on Sunday. While we won't know until then which country will hoist the golden trophy, plenty of other big winners have already emerged over the course of the past five-and-a-half weeks.
So here's a look at some of the star players, brands - and even condiments and comfort foods - that have already won this year's World Cup.
Vozinha
Cape Verde goalkeeper Josimar José Évora Dias - more commonly known as Vozinha - became one of the breakout stars of the summer.
Vozinha, 40, saw his profile rise exponentially after leading Cape Verde - the third-smallest country in Africa that was making its World Cup debut - to a 0-0 draw against Spain, where he earned the Man of the Match award, a draw against favored Uruguay and a close loss against Lionel Messi and Argentina.
He entered the tournament with 50,000 followers on Instagram, but left it with a massive 29.3 million over the course of a month. Experts told MarketWatch that Vozinha's newfound stardom is equivalent to at least $17.7 million in brand value.
Honorable mention: Norway's star striker Erling Haaland, who went viral for bringing home a taxidermy raccoon holding a whiskey bottle that he reportedly bought for $750 from Wild Bill's Western Store in Dallas. He shared a photo of his stuffed souvenir on social media with the caption, "It followed me home."
We could also call Wild Bill's Western Store a winner, as Front Office Sports reported the taxidermy shop sold out of stuffed raccoons thanks to high demand following Haaland's viral post.
United States Women's National Team
This was a men's World Cup, so why would the women's team be a winner?
Well, FIFA will distribute $871 million in prize money to national federations for the 2026 World Cup, nearly double the $440 million for the 2022 tournament. Payouts are tied to participation, and how far a nation advances. For qualifying for the Round of 16, the U.S. will be awarded $16 million in prize money, but by rule, that money must be split with the U.S. women's team.
A landmark agreement in 2022 concluded that the nation's federation, U.S. Soccer, would pool 80% of all World Cup prize money earned by its men's and women's national teams, which created one of the most notable equal-pay arrangements in sports history. U.S. Soccer takes a 20% cut, and then distributes all World Cup prize money equally among 52 players - 26 players on the roster of each team.
As for the men: The U.S. men had a couple of strong performances in the group stage, but flamed out in the Round of 16 to Belgium, losing 4-1 in a match that was steeped in controversy. The U.S. men have not made the quarterfinals (final eight teams) of a World Cup since 2002.
Fox
Fox had U.S. English-language broadcast rights to all World Cup matches, something the network paid $485 million for, according to The Athletic. And it seems like the investment paid off.
The July 6 game between the U.S. and Belgium was the most-watched game for a single network in U.S. history, with 33 million viewers for Fox.
What's more, last Saturday's match between England and Norway drew the largest TV audience ever for an English-language World Cup quarterfinal broadcast in the U.S., according to preliminary Nielsen numbers released by the network. The game averaged 19.48 million viewers on Fox, with a peak of nearly 25 million in extra time.
In addition to strong ratings, the inclusion of hydration breaks during games allowed TV partners to add commercial breaks, which are usually not included in global soccer matches. Fox made at least $250 million on the hydration break ads alone, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
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Related: Landon Donovan says there's 'zero chance' he could've afforded to play youth soccer in America if he was a kid today
Baby photos
Argentina's Messi, 39, and Spain's Lamine Yamal, 19, will see one another in the World Cup final this weekend. But it's not their first meeting.
In 2007, when a then-20-year-old Messi was playing for FC Barcelona, he posed for a series of photographs with Yamal, who was then just 5 months old. Yamal's family had entered a charity raffle organized by the Spanish newspaper Diario Sport and the United Nations Children's Fund, known as UNICEF, and they won a spot in a promotional photo shoot with Messi.
The photos resurfaced two years ago, when Yamal's father posted it online with the caption "The beginning of two legends."
And now Yamal plays for Barcelona.
American comfort food
Tourists from all across the world flooded America for the World Cup over the past several weeks, creating countless viral, heartwarming moments that have been a boost for many U.S. cities, sports venues, hotels - and food companies.
Related: Economy gets boost from World Cup and peace talks with Iran, but it's not past the danger point
There were numerous soccer-fan stories that caught the world's attention throughout the tournament, such as: Scotland fans drinking all the beer in Boston; Norwegian fans "rowing" in Times Square; European fans trying to bring suitcases stuffed with Hidden Valley Ranch dressing through TSA checkpoints at U.S. airports; and fans discovering fast-food chains like Buc-ees and Waffle House.
Some tourists were even spending thousands to visit America for the tournament without even having tickets to any matches, because they just wanted to enjoy the vibes.
Unfortunately, high ticket prices were one major downside of this year's tournament for many fans. Before the World Cup even kicked off, the cheapest ticket to see the U.S. men's team play was $1,640. The average purchase price for this weekend's final is an eye-watering $11,327, according to TickPick - the highest ever recorded.
Keep reading: When a World Cup team loses, its country's stock market also goes down. Here's the weird reason why.
-Weston Blasi
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 17, 2026 07:01 ET (11:01 GMT)
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