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World Baseball Classic Winners: Complete list of champions

We review the history of the most important national team tournament in baseball: who has lifted the WBC trophy?

Venezuela's Wilyer Abreu celebrates with teammates
Venezuela's Wilyer Abreu celebrates with teammates
Updated

The World Baseball Classic (WBC) has established itself as the pinnacle of the "King of Sports" on the international stage. Since its inception in 2006, the tournament has served as the stage where world powers such as Japan, the United States, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico clash with their best Major League Baseball (MLB) stars

Below is the historical list of champions:

World Baseball Classic winners

  • 2006: Japan
  • 2009: Japan
  • 2013: Dominican Republic
  • 2017: United States
  • 2023: Japan
  • 2026: Venezuela

Honours trivia

Japanese dominance: Japan is the only team to have won the tournament on more than one occasion, having reached the podium in every edition played to date.

The undefeated record: The Dominican Republic (2013) is the only team in history to win the World Baseball Classic undefeated, winning all eight of its tournament encounters.

Puerto Rico and the "runners-up": The Puerto Rican team has reached two consecutive finals (2013 and 2017), but in both it was left with the silver medal, falling to the Dominican Republic and the United States respectively.

Final venues: To date, all World Baseball Classic finals have been played in stadiums in the United States.

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