The winner of the World Cup third-place match receives three things: $29 million in FIFA prize money, bronze medals for the full 26-player squad and coaching staff, and an official podium finish in the tournament’s final standings. There is no trophy for third place — the medals and the money are the prize. The loser finishes fourth with $27 million and no medal, making the bronze final a $2 million match with hardware on the line.
Those figures come from FIFA’s record $655 million prize pool for the 2026 tournament, a 50% increase over Qatar 2022 — the champion of Sunday’s Spain-Argentina final banks $50 million, the runner-up $33 million. For comparison, Croatia earned $27 million for beating Morocco in the 2022 bronze final; the 2026 winner gets $2 million more for the same finish.
For France and England in Miami on Saturday, July 18, there’s history attached too: France has won two of its three third-place playoffs (1958, 1986), England has lost both of its appearances (1990, 2018) and has never finished third — and the match is Didier Deschamps’ last as France manager after 14 years, a World Cup title in 2018 and a final in 2022.
Why Teams Actually Care
Players often call the bronze final the game nobody wants to play — and then compete furiously anyway. The $2 million differential is real money to federations, a podium finish matters for national-team legacies and world-ranking points, and for veterans it’s frequently a farewell: Deschamps on Saturday, like generations of retiring stars before him, ends his international era in this fixture. The result also settles individual races — Kylian Mbappé enters the match tied with Lionel Messi at eight goals in the Golden Boot chase.
The Bottom Line
Third place at the 2026 World Cup is worth $29 million, bronze medals for the whole squad, and the last spot on the podium — $2 million and a medal more than fourth. The rules if it’s tied are extra time and penalties, and the medal tradition itself has a longer history than you’d think: see do players receive medals for finishing third.