Competition
The Dutch boast a rich footballing tradition, featuring seven Ballon d'Or winners and a European Championship title, yet they have never secured the sport's most coveted trophy.
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In certain respects, the Netherlands stand out as one of football's greatest overachievers.
For more than five decades, the Dutch have consistently performed beyond expectations for a nation with a current population just over 18 million—far smaller than many of the sport's major forces.
However, given the calibre of players the Netherlands have fielded over the years—Johan Cruyff, Ruud Gullit, Marco van Basten, Dennis Bergkamp, Wesley Sneijder, Lieke Martens, Virgil van Dijk—it seems puzzling that they have remained perennial runners-up at best in the World Cup.
The Netherlands are among a group of football heavyweights that have never won the World Cup.
We believe no team has a stronger case for being the best side never to have claimed the World Cup.
The Cruyff-inspired Total Football team of the 1970s is still regarded as perhaps the most influential side in post-war football—far more so than the West Germany and Argentina teams that defeated them in the finals of 1974 and 1978, respectively.
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Another outstanding generation of Dutch players emerged in the 1980s.
They produced three consecutive Ballon d'Or winners from 1987 to 1989 in the form of Gullit and (twice) Van Basten. Both were part of the Dutch squad that triumphed at Euro 1988, alongside figures like Ronald Koeman and Frank Rijkaard.
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No other side in history has reached more men's World Cup semi-finals (5) or finals (3) without winning the trophy, with semi-final appearances in 1998 and 2014, and another silver medal in 2010, when they lost to Spain.
Even the remarkable women's side that stormed to the Euro 2017 trophy fell short against the USA in the World Cup final two years later.
That makes five generations of great Dutch sides that somehow never managed to claim the title of world champions.
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There are a few other nations worth mentioning, though.
On either side of the Second World War, Austria and Hungary were football's great innovators, leaving an even more profound mark on how the game is played than the Netherlands side of the 1970s.
Yet they never won the World Cup either. Hungary came closest: they lost to Italy in the 1938 final, before Ferenc Puskas, Nandor Hidegkuti and co squandered an early 2-0 lead to lose 3-2 to West Germany in the 1954 final. The most frustrating aspect of the latter is that Hungary had thoroughly thrashed the Germans 8-3 (yes, eight-three) in the group stage of that tournament.
Austria, meanwhile, reached the semi-finals twice, in 1938 and 1954, but never made it to the final.
Sweden might seem an odd mention now, but they trail just behind the Dutch for reaching the final four of World Cups without winning it: they were runners-up as hosts in 1958, and exited in the semi-finals in 1938, 1950, and 1994. Sweden also lost the 2003 Women's World Cup final.
Perennial dark horses Croatia have reached three semi-finals as an independent nation, and a further two as part of the former Yugoslavia, but have only made the final once, with Luka Modric starring in the side that lost to France in 2018.
Then there's Portugal. Eusebio helped propel them to the semi-finals in 1966, where they earned many admirers, but they lost to hosts and eventual winners England.
Forty years later, Cristiano Ronaldo and his teammates reached the semi-finals again, only to lose to a Zinedine Zidane penalty.
Czechoslovakia went even further than that, but still not far enough: they were beaten finalists in 1934 and 1962.
But in our view, none of them top the Dutch for sheer frustration.
Steven Chicken has been working as a football writer since 2009, with stints at Football365 and the Huddersfield Examiner. Steven still covers Huddersfield Town home and away for his own publication, WeAreTerriers.com. Steven is a two-time nominee for Regional Journalist of the Year at the prestigious British Sports Journalism Awards, making the shortlist in 2020 and 2023.
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