Mathematician Who Correctly Predicted Last 3 World Cup Winners Releases 2026 Pick

The 2026 Men's World Cup is getting underway on Thursday.

Mexico will take on South Africa in the first game of the 2026 tournament at 3 p.m. E.T. The U.S. men's national team will be playing on Friday night, in the Americans' first game of the tournament. There are 48 teams playing in this year's event, with more than 100 games taking place over the next month-plus.

It should be a fun June and July.

Who's going to win the 2026 World Cup? Joachim Klement, a German mathematician, has correctly predicted the last three winners of the World Cup, using a financial model. He's released his pick for the 2026 tournament.

Klement correctly predicted his native Germany to win in Brazil in 2014, France in Russia in 2018 and Argentina in Qatar four years ago.

Now, he's made his pick for 2026.

Klement is going with the Netherlands to win the 2026 World Cup, which is taking place in North America.

Prediction made for 2026 World Cup winner

Klement is going with the Netherlands to win it all in 2026. The country has reached three World Cup finals but never won.

"It's completely irrational," he said of his model. "It's like playing the lottery. I always say that if anyone places a bet based on my prediction of who will be the next world champion, they're beyond help.

"It's like tossing a coin. You might predict that the coin will land on heads four times in a row rather than tails, and that might well happen. But that doesn't guarantee it will happen again next time."

Of course, when you correctly predict three champions in a row, people are going to follow your next one.

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This story was originally published June 11, 2026 at 4:00 PM.