The FIFA World Cup is the largest worldwide football tournament in existence celebrating what many people call the ‘beautiful game’.
Did you know that the very first World Cup event took place on 13th July 1930!
Here are some interesting and unknown facts :
- Brazil have appeared in the World Cup 19 times and have won it 5 times.
- The most goals scored by one player in the World Cup tournaments is Ronaldo, during his International career with Brazil from 1998-2006.
- Pelé has the most number of wins when he played for Brazil in 1958, 1962 and 1970.
- The youngest player to play in the World Cup back in 1982 was Norman Whiteside, from Northern Ireland. He was just 17 yrs and 41 days old.
- The oldest player to play in the tournament was Roger Milla, from Cameroun in 1994 against Russia. He was 42 yrs and 39 days old.
- Lothar Mattháus from Deutschland has played 25 matches for his Country from 1982-1998.
- Whilst Paolo Maldini from Italy has played for 2217 minutes for his Country during his career from 1990-2002.
- The fastest goal from kickoff occurred within 11 seconds and Hakan Súkúr from Turkey scored it against the Korea Republic in 2002.
- The player with the most goals scored during one tournament is Just Fontaine of France in 1958 and he scored 13 goals.
- Oleg Salenko, Russia, scored 5 goals during one match against Cameroun in 1994.
- The most goals scored during one match was 12, and the game was between Ósterreich versus Switzerland in 1954.
- The highest goal score victory was back in 1982, when Magyarország beat El Salvador 10-1.
- The goalkeeper with the best record for not conceding a goal during the tournament is Walter Zenga from Italy. He managed to keep a clean sheet for 517 minutes during the 1990 World Cup.
No doubt future FIFA World Cup’s will see some of these records broken and new facts added to the ever growing list.