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.
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, 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.[1]
| FIFA World Cup record | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Round | Position | |||||||
 1930 | Part of  United Kingdom | ||||||||
 1934 | |||||||||
 1938 | |||||||||
 1950 | |||||||||
 1954 | |||||||||
 1958 | |||||||||
 1962 | Did not qualify | ||||||||
| 1966 | Withdrew[2] [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 | |
| FIFA World Cup matches (by team) | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opponent | Total | Wins | Draws | Losses | GFA | GA | GD | |
| 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 9 | −5 | ||
| 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | +4 | ||
| 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 2 | +1 | ||
| 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | +2 | ||
| 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | +1 | ||
| 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | +1 | ||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | ||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | −1 | ||
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | −1 | ||
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | −2 | ||
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | −2 | ||
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | −2 | ||
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | −3 | ||
| World Cup | width=100 | Round | width=130 | Opponent | width=65 | Score | width=50 | Result | width=100 | Venue | Nigeria scorers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Group D | 3–0 | align=center bgcolor="#bbffbb" | W | Yekini, Amokachi, Amuneke | ||||||
| 1–2 | align=center bgcolor="#ffbbbb" | L | Foxborough | Siasia | |||||||
| 2–0 | align=center bgcolor="#bbffbb" | W | Foxborough | George, Amokachi | |||||||
| Round of 16 | 1–2 (a.e.t.) | align=center bgcolor="#ffbbbb" | L | Foxborough | Amuneke | ||||||
| 1998 | Group D | 3–2 | align=center bgcolor="#bbffbb" | W | Nantes | ||||||
| 1–0 | align=center bgcolor="#bbffbb" | W | Paris | Ikpeba | |||||||
| 1–3 | align=center bgcolor="#ffbbbb" | L | Toulouse | Oruma | |||||||
| Round of 16 | 1–4 | align=center bgcolor="#ffbbbb" | L | Saint-Denis | Babangida | ||||||
| 2002 | Group F | 1–0 | align=center bgcolor="#ffbbbb" | L | Ibaraki | ||||||
| 2–1 | align=center bgcolor="#ffbbbb" | L | Kobe | ||||||||
| 0–0 | align=center bgcolor="#ffffbb" | D | Osaka | ||||||||
| 2010 | Group B | 1–0 | align=center bgcolor="#ffbbbb" | L | Johannesburg | ||||||
| 2–1 | align=center bgcolor="#ffbbbb" | L | Bloemfontein | ||||||||
| 2–2 | align=center bgcolor="#ffffbb" | D | Durban | Uche, Yakubu (pen.) | |||||||
| 2014 | Group F | 0–0 | align=center bgcolor="#ffffbb" | D | Curitiba | ||||||
| 1–0 | align=center bgcolor="#bbffbb" | W | Cuiabá | Odemwingie | |||||||
| 2–3 | align=center bgcolor="#ffbbbb" | L | Porto Alegre | Musa (2) | |||||||
| Round of 16 | 2–0 | align=center bgcolor="#ffbbbb" | L | Brasília | |||||||
| 2018 | Group D | 2–0 | align=center bgcolor="#ffbbbb" | L | Kaliningrad | ||||||
| 2–0 | align=center bgcolor="#bbffbb" | W | Volgograd | Musa (2) | |||||||
| 1–2 | align=center bgcolor="#ffbbbb" | L | Saint Petersburg | Moses (pen.) |
| 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 | |
| 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 | |