15 Unbelievable Football Facts that We Bet Even the Biggest Football Fan Does Not Know
15 Unbelievable Lesser Known Football Facts
FIFA world cup 2018 is around the corner and billions of football-frenzy fans will plan their lives around the games. The most popular sport in the world will witness another world cup this year. We present to you the most interesting football facts.
1.Football is both the most played and most watched sport on the planet. The sport is played by nearly 250 million players in more than 200 countries. And it was watched by over a billion people on television.
2. The highest number of goals scored by a single player in a Football match was 16. Stephan Stanis made the record in 1942 while playing for Racing Club De Lens in France.
3. 5,098 teams took part in the largest ever Football tournament. The Bangkok League Seven-a-Side tournament saw the participation of over 35,000 players.
4. Lee Todd was the fastest person ever to get a red card in the history of football. He was sent off the field within 2 seconds after he exclaimed “F**k me that was loud” when he heard the starting whistle.
5. The fastest ever goal scored in the history of the game was in 2.8 seconds. Ricardo Olivera accomplished this feat while playing for Uruguay in 1998.
6. On an average a football player runs somewhere around 11 km during every match. The field is spread between 100 to 130 years long and 50 to 100 yards wide. And the midfielder generally does most of the running.
7. English Sheffield Football Club is the oldest football club in the world. It was founded by Major William Priest and Colonel Nathaniel Cresswick in the year 1857. Both of them were army officers.
8. The first ever football match to be broadcasted on Television was between Arsenal Reserves and Arsenal in 1937. It was a friendly match.
9. The first and only player to win the golden ball in a football world cup is Oliver Kahn. He got this award in the 2002 FIFA World Cup.
10. The youngest ever player to win the Football World Cup is Pele. He was 17 years and 249 days old when he won he was part of the World Cup-winning team of Brazil in 1958.
11. A European team has always been among the top 2 in every Football Worldcup. The only years when a country from Europe was not a part of the finals was in 1930 and 1950.
12. The word ‘soccer’ was originally used by England as a short form of “Association Football” that further shortened to “Assoc Football” and finally “Soccer”. The USA adopted it later.
13. A football would have been on the moon, only if NASA had allowed it. Neil Armstrong was a strong proponent of taking a football on his journey to the moon.
14. For more than 120 years of the sport, the size of the ball has never changed. It has always remained 28-inch in circumference.
15. Despite being the world champion 5 times, Brazil has never scored a win over Norway. They have lost 2 matches and drawn 2 as well but never won any.
We hope the world cup this year creates some new records so that we can add them to this list. Start preparing for the biggest festival on this planet.
