25 Football Facts That Will Surprise You

The football fever has set in across the country after FIFA 2014 kicked off in Brazil. The whole world is gripped and tied by the football World Cup fever. The foot ball craze always sticks around during the world cup. Football was actually invented in China, yet this sport is the most popular in the United States. According to history, the American game of football existed for almost 150 years. First writings found about this team game are believed to be between 476 BC-221 BC, and it was popularly referred to as Cuju. Cuju was popularly played in China. The early Chinese used to stuff feathers inside the leather ball which the players kicked at the rectangular field. At that time, Cuju involved players kicking the leather ball through a small hole in a piece of silk cloth and it was fixed on bamboo canes (above 9 metres). Interestingly in order to score a goal, the players had to shoot the ball through a piece of silk cloth hung between the poles. Even Romans and Greek have played a lot of ball games. The Ancient Greek’s team game was called Episkyros, while the Roman’s ball game was known as harpastum. Episkyros was more like rugby Football. Now this game is played by two teams of eleven players using a round ball.

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The most popular version of this sport is called as “association football” or “soccer”. Some of the other names that are related to football includes American Football, Australian Rules football, Canadian football, Gaelic football, Rugby League and Rugby Union.

Here are some interesting 25 football facts that every foot ball fan should know.

The Duke
The NFL football is referred to as The Duke. The most notable football fact is that the name was given as a mark of respect to the late New York Giants owner, Wellington Mara.

Fastest hat-trick ever
An interesting football fact is that James Edward Hayter has created history after scoring three goals in 141 seconds. Ten years ago, James who came as a substitute for Bournemouth against Wrexham had scored the football League's fastest hat-trick ever.

Football huddle
Do you know who created the football huddle? It originated in Gallaudet in the 1890s. The Gallaudet football team came to know that the opposing team members where using sign languages to snap off their messages. A well-known football fact is that the huddle was officially created by Paul Hubbard. It was created so that opposing teams do not read the hand signals.

In five minutes
Barnsley striker Ashley Ward had garnered the limelight at Sunderland in November 1998. He had scored, missed a penalty and was also sent off in the space of five minutes.

Always delayed
The most weird football fact is that the Scottish Cup tie between Falkirk and Inverness Caledonian Thistle in 1979 was always postponed. It was delayed for not less than 29 times due to bad climatic conditions.

Berlin
Berlin is the most popular city in any of the major European leagues. This city is the major European capital that does not have a top flight foot ball team.

Mario Zagallo
Mario Zagallio is best remembered as a player and as a team manager. An interesting foot ball fact is that this man is associated with four World Cup winning teams. As a player, he had won the tournament in 1958 and 1962, while he had also led the 1970 team to win the trophy as a manager.

Roger Milla
Did you know that Roger Milla from Cameroon was 42 years old when he had played the 1994 FIFA World Cup?

Indian withdrew
India withdrew the football world cup in 1950 since they were strictly warned not to play barefoot in the tournament.

44 year old drought
After winning their second world cup title in 1938, Italy had completely gone into a 44-year drought before emerging as the game champions in their third football World Cup title in 1982.

Manchester city fan
In 1995, a Manchester city fan was banned for carrying dead chicken into the city’s Maine road ground. The crazy fan used to celebrate and rejoice Manchester city’s goals by swinging the birds around his head.

First player to miss a penalty
The first player who missed a penalty kick was Valdemar de Brito during the World cup in 1930. He was a Brazilian footballer.

Brazilian striker Ronaldo
Cristiano Ronaldo was named the most valuable player at the 1998 World Cup final against France. Even though it was France who had emerged as game winners and World Cup champions yet the Brazilian striker was chosen as MVP.

99 World Cup matches
Germany has nearly played 99 world cup matches, which incidentally is an interesting football fact that every fan of the game should know.

Fastest Goal
According to history, Turkey's Hakan Sukur was the only player to have scored the fastest goal. He had garnered attention for scoring the fastest goal in 11 seconds in the game against South Korea in the 2012 world cup.

No bare chests please
The funniest football fact is that FIFA barred players to swap shirts after their game in 1986 since they didn’t want the players to walk around in bare chests on the field.

Unlucky countries
Netherlands, Czechoslovakia and Hungary are touted to have the most successful teams, yet these countries’ teams have never won any matches. They all have made it to the finals but have never been successful in winning the world cup trophy.

First world cup
The first world cup trophy was won by Uruguay in 1930.

210 goals
Brazil is the only country to have scored 210 goals in all World cup tournaments. They have created history by securing the most number of goals in World Cup matches.

Sir Viv Richards
Sir Viv Richards was the most renowned player to have played both football World Cup and Cricket World Cup.

1942 and 1946
It is common knowledge that World Cup was never played in 1942 and 1946 due to World War.

League appearances
Peter Shilton has made more number of appearances in the English League. He had made a mark with 1,005 league appearances.

17 runners-up medals
Italian Paolo Maldin has been the only famous legend to have a collection of 17 runners-up medals. This is considered to be the biggest in this sport.

First hat trick
Interestingly the first hat-trick was scored by an American player Bert Patenaude during the 1930 World Cup.

Brazil
Brazil is the only nation to have appeared in every World Cup tournament. They have played from 1930 until 2010.