FIFA World Cup Trivia

The much anticipated FIFA World Cup will be held in Brazil, with the grand tournament scheduled to start on 12 June.

went in search of the most interesting facts about the Football World Cup…

• The first FIFA World Cup was held in Uruguay back in 1930 and 13 countries participated in the very first World Cup tournament.

• The World Cup was first televised in 1954 and is the most widely watched sporting event in the world. The cumulative audience of all the matches of the FIFA World Cup 2006 is estimated to be over 26.29 billion.

• The oldest player to lead a country to the World Cup title was the Italian goalkeeper and Captain Dino Zoff, who at the age of 40 captained Italy to their 1982 FIFA World Cup title.

• The first player to miss a penalty kick in a World Cup competition was Valdemar de Brito of Brazil back in 1930.

• German National Franz Beckenbauer is the only player in the history of World Cup that won the title as a player and coach for Germany. He led Germany to their title in 1974 as a player and then again won the title in 1990 as the Germany coach.

• The FIFA World Cup is the biggest soccer tournament in the world with over a billion people tuning in to watch 32 countries battle it out at different venues in the host country to lift the much coveted FIFA World Cup.

• Eighteen tournaments have been held since 1930, only seven nations have won the prestigious World Cup, Brazil is on top of the list with five wins, followed closely by Italy and Germany with four and three wins respectively. Argentina and Uruguay have two titles each and England and France have one each.

• The first World Cup trophy was named The Jules Rimet Trophy after the founder of FIFA, and was awarded each year until it was won outright by Brazil when they won the cup for the third time in 1970.

• The record number of World Cup career goals is 15 by Brazilian forward Ronaldo.

• The record number of appearances in world cup matches is 25, held by German footballer Lothar Matthaus.

• The fastest goal in the world was scored by Turkey’s Hasan Sukur, 11 seconds into the game against South Korea in the 2002 World Cup.

• Oliver Kahn is the only goalkeeper in the history of FIFA World to have won the Golden Ball trophy.

• India withdrew from the 1950 World Cup when they realised that according to FIFA regulations players had to wear football boots and would not be allowed to play barefoot.

• The record for most defeats suffered by a nation in World Cups is held by Mexico with 20 losses.

• Norman Whiteside was 17 when he played in the 1982 FIFA World Cup making him the youngest player to play in the World Cup.

• Out of the 18 World Cups, South America and European countries have won nine titles each. No other continent has produced a world champion.

• The only two players to have scored in four consecutive finals tournaments in 1958, 1962, 1966 and 1970 are Pele of Brazil and Uwe Seeler of West Germany.

• Forty-two-year-old Roger Milla in 1994 became the oldest goal scorer and the oldest player in World Cup history.

• The very first hat-trick in a World Cup match was scored by Bert Patenaude of United States in a match against Paraguay in the 1930 World Cup.

• In 1986 FIFA prohibited shirt swapping because they did not want players to ‘bare their chests’ on the field.

• Brazil is the country to have appeared for every finals tournament.

• Sir Viv Richards is the only person to have played both World Cup Football and World Cup Cricket.

• Zinedine Zidane, one of the greatest soccer players ever, is remembered for his last ever act on a soccer field during 2006 World Cup when he head butted Marco Materazzi in the chest which led to a red card as well as a farewell to professional soccer.

• The World Cup was not played in 1942 and 1946 because of World War II.

– Additional information from: www.soccermaniak.com

In an age of information overload, Sunrise is The Namibian’s morning briefing, delivered at 6h00 from Monday to Friday. It offers a curated rundown of the most important stories from the past 24 hours – occasionally with a light, witty touch. It’s an essential way to stay informed. Subscribe and join our newsletter community.