The Did you know thread. Uselss, but fascinating trivia, facts and stories

[Henry Yoghurt]

How about interesting sports injuries? Didn't a Liverpool keeper injure himself trapping a falling mayonnaise jar/unfolding an ironing board, or something equally ridiculous?

I'm not sure about a Liverpool keeper, but Santiago Canizares did injure himself in a similar incident with a bottle of aftershave, which shattered and injured his tendons.

I think Rio Ferdinand also once injured himself when he tried to stand up after watching four hours of television.

[Excape Goat]

Arsenal wore red becasue the original team borrowed a set of red shirts from Nottingham Forrest. The red color became their club's color.

[Cassano]

These are some almost-happenings

In the early 90s Juventus midfielder Dino Baggio refused a transfer to Parma. Juventus were going to send a young Alessandro Del Piero there instead. At the last minute Baggio changed his mind and Del Piero got to stay at Juve, where he became a legend.

Luis Figo, before joining Barcelona, signed a contract with Juventus but also signed a contract with Parma. This led to a dispute between Juve and Parma, and FIFA banned Figo from moving to Italy for 2 years. He moved to Barca where he became a star.

In 2001 Fiorentina had already agreed fees with Parma for the transfer of star players Francesco Toldo and Manuel Rui Costa. However, both refused the transfer and were then sold to Inter and Milan respectively.

Also in 2001, Milan bought right back Cristiano Zenoni, who had an impressive year at Atalanta. However, within a day he was sold to Juventus in exchange for Filippo Inzaghi. Milan got the better of the deal, as SuperPippo became a Milan legend and Zenoni turned out to be just an average player.

[Excape Goat]

Also in 2001, Milan bought right back Cristiano Zenoni, who had an impressive year at Atalanta. However, within a day he was sold to Juventus in exchange for Filippo Inzaghi. Milan got the better of the deal, as SuperPippo became a Milan legend and Zenoni turned out to be just an average player.

Didn't Inzaghi have some issues with Del Piero?

[Cassano]

Didn't Inzaghi have some issues with Del Piero?

there were rumors of that but Juventus also had just bought Trezeguet.

[Excape Goat]

-- Uruguay and Argentina dominated the first World Cup. Their domination was credited to their style of football -- a style that featured short passes. The name of the style was called the "Scotish game" or something similiar. The style was what the Scots taught the South Americans, and the South Ameriucans mastered it.

[Cassano]

Inter of Italy was actually founded as Internazionale FC because cross-town rivals Milan wouldn't allow foreigners to play. 100 years later, in the present day, Internazionale still only has 3 Italians on the whole squad.

[CACuzcatlan]

Inter of Italy was actually founded as Internazionale FC because cross-town rivals Milan wouldn't allow foreigners to play. How ironic that 100 years later Internazionale only has 3 Italians on the whole squad.

Thats not ironic at all. It would be ironic if AC Milan only had 3 Italians.

[Cassano]

Thats not ironic at all. It would be ironic if AC Milan only had 3 Italians.

yeah I realized that. Maybe I just should of said, "In the present day".

[Excape Goat]

Stoichkov wore #4 for his last match in a CSKA Sofia shirt in recognition of the four goals he scored against Levski the week before.

In 1972, Malcolm Allison changed the colors of Crystal Palace from claret and sky-blue to red-and-blues stripes so that the team looked liked Barcelona. the club was relegated twice in the next two seasons.

[Excape Goat]

Zidane and Henry played 63 times together for France, but Zidane only assisted Henry once in an interantional goal. The goal came during the WC match against Brazil in 2006. The match was their 61st time together in a French jersey.

Spain had the cheapest hotel of all 32 teams at WC 2006.

[Excape Goat]

Some Real Madrid trivia: You will find them interesting if you understand the historical nature of La Liga and its role in Spanish history.

The first player Real Madrid brought was a Basque. Jose Maria Pena joined the club for 6,000 pesetas(35 pounds today money) in 1928.

The first club president was a Catalan named Juan Pedros Rubio.

[Excape Goat]

Some interesting WC records

Most goals conceded by a keeper: 25 goals: Antonio Carbajal ( Mexico) and Mohamed Al-Deayea ( Saudi Arabia)

Most penalties saved, one tournament (excluding during shootouts): 2 penalities, Jan Tomaszewski ( Poland), 1974 and Brad Friedel ( USA), 2002

Most consecutive first-round eliminations: 8 times, Scotland (1954-1958, 1974-1990, 1998).

Most consecutive failed qualification attempts: 17 times, Luxembourg (1934-2006).

Most consecutive draws: 5 matches, Belgium, from 0-0 Netherlands (1998) to 1-1 Tunisia (2002).

Most consecutive matches without a draw: 16 matches, Portugal, from 3-1 Hungary (1966) to 1-0 Netherlands (2006).

Most minutes played by a player: 2,217 minutes, Paolo Maldini ( Italy, 1990-2002).

Most matches played: 25 matches, Lothar Matthäus ( Germany, 1982-1998).

Most matches won by a player: 16, Cafu ( Brazil, 1994-2006).

Most appearances as substitute: 11, Denílson ( Brazil, 1998-2002).

Youngest player, final: 17 years and 249 days, Pelé ( Brazil, vs Sweden, 1958).

Youngest player, qualifying match: 13 years and 310 days, Souleymane Mamam ( Togo, vs Zambia, May 6, 2001, 2002 CAF Group 1).

Largest age difference on the same team : 23 years and 358 days, 1994, Cameroon (Rigobert Song: 18 years and 10 days; Roger Milla: 42 years and 1 day).
Longest period between World Cup finals appearances as a player: 12 years and 13 days, Alfred Bickel ( Switzerland, 1938-1950).

Longest period between World Cup finals appearances, overall: 44 years, Tim ( Brazil, 1938, as a player; and Peru, 1982, as coach).

Most cards (all-time, player): 6, Zinedine Zidane ( France, 1998-2006) and Cafu ( Brazil, 1994-2006).

Most sendings off (all-time, player) : 2, Rigobert Song ( Cameroon, 1994 and 1998) and Zinedine Zidane ( France, 1998 and 2006).

[Excape Goat]

England 1966 was the first World Cup tp have a mascot. World Cup Willie the lion wore a jersey featuring the Union Jack. However, the use of this flag is theoretically wrong since England, not United Kingdom, was the host and the cup was played exclusively in England.



http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c6/1966-mascot.jpg

[Excape Goat]

The starting lineup for the movie "The Escape to Victory"

----------Sylvester Stallone-----------
Michael Caine--Russell Osman---Co Prins----Paul Van Himst
Soren Lindsted--John Wark---Bobby Moore---Osvaldo Ardiles
-----------Pele------Mike Summerbee

Subs:Kazimierz Deyna, Hallvar Thoresen, Kevin O'Callaghan


Pele's name in the movie is.........http://www.123football.com/players/f/luis-fernandez/luis-fernandez.jpg

[El Mandrake]

Worst instance of futebol violence I ever saw---colo colo vs boca where the chileans had some taunters disguized as photographers harrassing players at throw ins sparked violence where on film a boca substitute (carsich)was captured on film kicking someone's head so hard that the victims eye flew out of its socket, the boca manager (taveres) suffered a broken nose when a camera smashed his face by a "photographer".

Worst form of sportsmanship----a chilean goalie faked an injury, captured on film taking a razor and cutting his eyebrow......i think chile was banned from the qualifiers for that i think

the all time leading scorer in a season in argentina is actually paraguayian, a man by name of enrico

[Excape Goat]

Here is the story of Ali Dia.

Ali Dia (born Dakar, 20 August 1965 in Dakar, Senegal) is a former amateur Senegalese footballer who once played for English FA Premier League club Southampton, after falsely claiming to be a Senegalese international.

After a playing career at the lower levels in France and Germany, and having already had failed trials at Port Vale, Gillingham and Bournemouth, before playing at semi-pro club Blyth Spartans, Dia was signed by Southampton manager Graeme Souness in 1996, after Souness received a phone call purporting to be from Liberian international and former FIFA World Player of the Year George Weah. "Weah" told Souness that Dia was his cousin, had played for Paris Saint-Germain and had played 13 times for his country. In actual fact, none of this was true, and the phone call was from Dia's agent.[1] Nonetheless, Souness was convinced, and signed Dia on a one-month contract.

Dia played just one game for Southampton, in the number 33 shirt, against Leeds United on November 23, 1996; he had originally been scheduled to play in a reserve friendly against Arsenal, but the match was cancelled due to a waterlogged pitch. In the match against Leeds, he came on as a substitute for Matthew Le Tissier after 32 minutes but his performance was spectacularly below Premier League quality. He was later substituted (by Ken Monkou) after playing for 53 minutes; Leeds won the match 2–0.

Dia was released by Southampton two weeks into his contract. He briefly played for non-league Gateshead, before leaving in February 1997. His whereabouts since then are unknown among reliable sources. [1]

He has achieved a notorious status amongst English football fans for his lack of ability, and is regularly featured in lists of bad players or bad transfers.[2][3] He was named at #1 in a list of "The 50 worst footballers", by newspaper The Times.[4]

[Seaside Mafia]

Paul Stewart, the only player to have played in the three most famous derby matches in England.

North London derby (for Tottenham)
Merseyside derby (for Liverpool)
Manchester derby (for Man. City)

He was also at Sundeland so he could have played in another famous one, the Northeast derby, but I am not sure if he ever played vs. Newcastle while at Sunderland.

4 most famous derby matches:

You forgot Blackpool v Preston

[Seaside Mafia]

Juventus used to play in pink shirts, but received a shipment of shirts meant for Notts County. Now they play in Notts County's colours, with a pink strip as their away strip.

Apologies, this story is hackneyed. :)

How about interesting sports injuries? Didn't a Liverpool keeper injure himself trapping a falling mayonnaise jar/unfolding an ironing board, or something equally ridiculous?

Sounds like something that Liverpool keepr David James would have done. He also had to miss games caused by repetitive strain injuries picked up through his addiction to his XBox.

[Massimo_Oddo]

Also in 2001, Milan bought right back Cristiano Zenoni, who had an impressive year at Atalanta. However, within a day he was sold to Juventus in exchange for Filippo Inzaghi. Milan got the better of the deal, as SuperPippo became a Milan legend and Zenoni turned out to be just an average player.

A similar thing happened when Corradi went to Inter but was then sold to Lazio straight away as part of the deal for Crespo.

Heres some other useless trivia.

Vitor Baia wore number 99 for Porto because he joined in the year 1999.

Apparantly Vieri always wore the number 32 because he was transferred for 32 million from Lazio to Inter but im not sure about this because he was already number 32 at Lazio. He also wore 21 for the NT because his hero Allan Border (a cricketer) wore 21. Incidently, Vieri could easily have made it as a professional cricketer.