Nigeria at the FIFA World Cup

The FIFA World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The championship has been awarded every four years since the first tournament in 1930, except in 1942 and 1946, due to World War II.

For the women's team, see Nigeria at the FIFA Women's World Cup.

Nigeria national team at the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia

The tournament consists of two parts, the qualification phase and the final phase (officially called the World Cup Finals). The qualification phase, which currently take place over the three years preceding the Finals, is used to determine which teams qualify for the Finals. The current format of the Finals involves 32 teams competing for the title, at venues within the host nation (or nations) over a period of about a month. The World Cup Finals is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world,^[1] with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the 2006 tournament final.

Nigeria has reached the FIFA World Cup on six occasions, the first being in 1994 where they reached the second round. Their sixth and most recent appearance was the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.^[2]

FIFA World Cup record

FIFA World Cup record
Year	Round	Position	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
1930	Part of United Kingdom
1934
1938
1950
1954
1958
1962	Did not qualify
1966	Withdrew[n 1][3]
1970	Did not qualify
1974
1978
1982
1986
1990
1994	Round of 16	9th	4	2	0	2	7	4
1998		12th	4	2	0	2	6	9
2002	Group stage	27th	3	0	1	2	1	3
2006	Did not qualify
2010	Group stage	27th	3	0	1	2	3	5
2014	Round of 16	16th	4	1	1	2	3	5
2018	Group stage	21st	3	1	0	2	3	4
2022	Did not qualify
2026	To be determined
2030
2034
Total	Round of 16	6/22	21	6	3	12	23	30

Notes

1. All African nations withdrew due to a lack of qualifying berths.

Head-to-head record

Opponent	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Win %
Argentina	5	0	0	5	4	9	−5	000.00
Bosnia and Herzegovina	1	1	0	0	1	0	+1	100.00
Bulgaria	2	2	0	0	4	0	+4	100.00
Croatia	1	0	0	1	0	2	−2	000.00
Denmark	1	0	0	1	1	4	−3	000.00
England	1	0	1	0	0	0	+0	000.00
France	1	0	0	1	0	2	−2	000.00
Greece	2	1	0	1	3	2	+1	050.00
Iceland	1	1	0	0	2	0	+2	100.00
Iran	1	0	1	0	0	0	+0	000.00
Italy	1	0	0	1	1	2	−1	000.00
Paraguay	1	0	0	1	1	3	−2	000.00
South Korea	1	0	1	0	2	2	+0	000.00
Spain	1	1	0	0	3	2	+1	100.00
Sweden	1	0	0	1	1	2	−1	000.00
Total	21	6	3	12	23	30	−7	028.57

By match

World Cup	Round	Opponent	Score	Result	Venue	Nigeria scorers
1994	Group D	Bulgaria	3–0	W	Dallas	Yekini, Amokachi, Amuneke
		Argentina	1–2	L	Foxborough	Siasia
		Greece	2–0	W	Foxborough	George, Amokachi
	Round of 16	Italy	1–2 (a.e.t.)	L	Foxborough	Amuneke
1998	Group D	Spain	3–2	W	Nantes	Adepoju, Zubizarreta (o.g.), Oliseh
		Bulgaria	1–0	W	Paris	Ikpeba
		Paraguay	1–3	L	Toulouse	Oruma
	Round of 16	Denmark	1–4	L	Saint-Denis	Babangida
2002	Group F	Argentina	0–1	L	Ibaraki	—
		Sweden	1–2	L	Kobe	Aghahowa
		England	0–0	D	Osaka	—
2010	Group B	Argentina	0–1	L	Johannesburg	—
		Greece	1–2	L	Bloemfontein	Uche
		South Korea	2–2	D	Durban	Uche, Yakubu (pen.)
2014	Group F	Iran	0–0	D	Curitiba	—
		Bosnia and Herzegovina	1–0	W	Cuiabá	Odemwingie
		Argentina	2–3	L	Porto Alegre	Musa (2)
	Round of 16	France	0–2	L	Brasília	—
2018	Group D	Croatia	0–2	L	Kaliningrad	—
		Iceland	2–0	W	Volgograd	Musa (2)
		Argentina	1–2	L	Saint Petersburg	Moses (pen.)

Squads

Most appearances

Rank	Player	Matches	World Cups
1	Joseph Yobo	10	2002, 2010 and 2014
2	Jay-Jay Okocha	9	1994, 1998 and 2002
3	Finidi George	8	1994 and 1998
	Sunday Oliseh	8	1994 and 1998
	Peter Rufai	8	1994 and 1998
	Rashidi Yekini	8	1994 and 1998
	Vincent Enyeama	8	2002, 2010 and 2014
8	Mutiu Adepoju	7	1994 and 1998
	Uche Okechukwu	7	1994 and 1998
	John Obi Mikel	7	2014 and 2018
	Ahmed Musa	7	2014 and 2018

Top goalscorers

Rank	Player	Goals	World Cups
1	Ahmed Musa	4	2014 (2) and 2018 (2)
2	Daniel Amokachi	2	1994
	Emmanuel Amunike	2	1994
	Kalu Uche	2	2010
5	Finidi George	1	1994
	Samson Siasia	1	1994
	Rashidi Yekini	1	1994
	Mutiu Adepoju	1	1998
	Tijani Babangida	1	1998
	Victor Ikpeba	1	1998
	Sunday Oliseh	1	1998
	Wilson Oruma	1	1998
	Julius Aghahowa	1	2002
	Yakubu	1	2010
	Peter Odemwingie	1	2014
	Victor Moses	1	2018

See also

• African nations at the FIFA World Cup