-- 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.........
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
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.
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.
When Ronaldo arrived at Inter, he wore #10 for the first season, however the next season he wanted his number 9, worn by Chilean striker Ivan Zamorano. Zamorano gave it up to the Brazilian star, but Zamorano took the number 18. The interesting thing is that he made Inter put a plus sign in between the 1 and 8 (1+8) on all his jerseys, to show he was still #9.
When Francesco Totti was still playing with the Roma youth side, Roma president Franco Sensi confronted coach Carlo Mazzone and said "I want to give you a gift for next season, I'm thinking of buying Jari Litmanen, you like him?" Mazzone replied, "We don't need Litmanen, we have a superstar named Francesco Totti playing for our Primavera (U-20s) side." The following season, Totti became a Roma first team regular.
Marco Materazzi's father, Giuseppe Materazzi, is a manager. When he was a kid he constantly told Marco to become a Basketball player instead of a footballer because of his height.
Puskas Trivia: --Puskás tried to play in Italy but was not able to find a top-flight club willing to sign him, as Italian managers were concerned about his age and weight. (after escaping Hungary during the '56 uprising). --Puskas was a childhood friend of Istvan Eszterhas, father of legendary Hollywood screenwriter Joe Eszterhas. --Best said of Puskas (as coach) "the players he was coaching did not respect him until he put the ball down outside the area and intentionally hit the cross bar ten times in a row.”
Alberto Spencer holds the unique distinction of being the only goalscorer, capped by two different countries simultaneously: Ecuador, and Uruguay. He 'switched' shirts no less than four times.
The all-time leading goalscorer for the Copa Libertadores would never play in a World Cup. Alberto Spencer of Ecuador.
When Fiorentina were ready to sell stars Francesco Toldo and Manuel Rui Costa, they had worked out a deal with Parma and both players were set to go to the Gialloblu. However both players rejected the transfer, and moved to Inter and Milan respectively.
Famous Italian manager Giovanni Trapattoni's sister is a nun and he always has Holy Water and Rosary beads with him on the sidelines.
The first international match to be played indoors was in 1976 in Seattle. The US defeated Canada 2-0 in a WC qualifer. It is commonly believed that Pak Do-Ik, who scored North Korea's goal vs Italy in 1966 was a dentist. In fact, he was a corporal in the North Korean army, who was promoted to sergeant after the tournament. He later became a gymnastics instuctor. Ernest Wilimowski, who scored four goals for Poland vs Brazil in the 1938 World Cup, and three goals vs Hungary in a match in Warsaw just four days before Poland was invaded, played during the war for Germany. He scored 13 goals in 8 games for the Germans in friendlies. He referred to himself as neither German nor Polish, but as a Silesian.