A look at winners of each Men's Hockey World Cup & how India fared

The next edition of the prestigious tournament will be in 2026.

FIH Hockey World Cup will be held for the second consecutive time in India having hosted previously in 2018. The tournament started in 1971 and takes place once every four years. The first three editions were held within a span of two years since then the time frame has been four years. A total of 16 countries will be participating in the 15th edition of the World Cup and a total of 25 countries have participated to date. Wales and Chile will be the new entrants and a total of 27 countries would have played at the end of the 15th edition. The Men's Hockey World Cup has seen six different winners.

FIH was looking to add more teams and extend the tally to 24 teams but in the end, stuck on to  16 teams. Pakistan won the inaugural edition and is the most successful team winning four times followed by the Netherlands (3), Australia (3), and Belgium (2). This will also be the fourth time India will be hosting the World Cup.

Here we take a look at all the Men's Hockey World Cup winners since its inauguration in 1971.

List of all Men's Hockey World Cup Winners:

1971 - Pakistan

India finished third beating Kenya in the playoffs.

1973 - Netherlands

India finished second and lost to the Netherlands in the Penalty strokes (2-4)

1975 - India

India beat Pakistan (2-1) and became the champion under the leadership of captain Vasudevan Baskaran.

1978 - Pakistan

India finished sixth losing to Spain in the playoffs.

1982 - Pakistan

India finished fifth defeating the Soviet Union while hosting the event first time. 

1986 - Australia

India finished twelfth losing to Pakistan in the playoffs

1990 - Netherlands

India finished tenth losing to Argentina in the playoffs.

1994 - Pakistan

India finished fifth defeating England in the playoffs.

1998 - Netherlands

India finished ninth defeating New Zealand.

Men's Hockey World Cup winners in the 21st century:

2002 - Germany

India finished tenth losing to New Zealand.

2006 - Germany

India finished eleventh defeating South Africa.

2010 - Australia

India finished eighth.

2014 - Australia

India finished ninth defeating South Korea

2018 - Belgium

India lost in the quarterfinals to the Netherlands

2023 - Germany

India lost in the cross-overs to New Zealand and finished joint ninth.