37. Four Englishmen have refereed World Cup finals – George Reader in 1950, William Ling in 1954, Jack Taylor
in 1974 and Howard Webb in 2010.
38. Tofiq
Bahramov, the ‘Russian’ linesman who judged that Geoff Hurst’s second goal in
the 1966 World Cup final had crossed the line, was in fact from Azerbaijan which was part of the Soviet Union at the time. Shortly after his death in
1993, Azerbaijan’s national stadium was renamed after him. England played there
during their qualification campaign for the 2006 World Cup.
39. According
to the latest version of the FIFA world rankings, Germany – the reigning world
champions – are the best team in the world. Brazil, Belgium, Portugal and
Argentina make up the rest of the top five, and then it’s Switzerland, France,
Spain, Chile and Poland filling the spots from sixth to tenth. England are 13th.
The highest-ranked country not to have qualified for the World Cup is Italy (20th),
while the lowest-ranked country that has qualified is Saudi Arabia (joint 67th,
one spot below hosts Russia). Right down at the bottom in joint 207th
place are Anguilla, the Bahamas, Eritrea, Somalia and Tonga (the lowest-ranked
European country is San Marino, which is 205th).
40. As
well as the World Cup, there’s an alternative, unofficial way of defining who the
footballing world champions are. Using a system
similar to that used in boxing (in which you can only become a world champion
by defeating a world champion, and you then hold that title until you are
yourself defeated) and having been worked back to the second-ever international
football match (the first one, Scotland v England in 1872, having been a draw),
the Unofficial Football World Championship (UFWC) was unveiled in 2003. A total
of 48 countries, from all six confederations, have at one time or another held
the title. Any full international match – be it a tournament game, a qualifier
or a friendly – counts as a title challenge if the reigning unofficial world
champions are involved, so unless you’re familiar with the UFWC then you might
not even know that your country is in with a shout. The UFWC is not in any way
sanctioned by FIFA. For what it’s worth, the current unofficial world champions
are Peru, who’ve held the title since they beat Bolivia in a World Cup
qualifier last year. They’ll be unofficially (maybe unknowingly) defending
their title at this year’s World Cup, providing they can avoid being defeated
by Sweden in a pre-tournament friendly on Saturday. An alternative to this is a virtual trophy called Nasazzi
41. Edson
Arantes do Nascimento – Pelé to you and me – is the only man ever
to have won three World Cups, for Brazil in 1958, 1962 and 1970 (admittedly he
didn’t play in the 1962 final due to injury, but he was in the squad and had
played in the earlier games). He was just 17 when he won the World Cup for the
first time, becoming the youngest player to score in a World Cup final in the
process (twice, as it happens). By scoring Brazil’s first in the 1970 final, he became the second person to have scored in more than one World Cup final, the first having been Vava, his 1958 team-mate and fellow-double-scorer who also scored one in the 1962 final.
42. The
1958 final, in which Brazil beat Sweden 5-2, was the first time a South American
country had won the World Cup in Europe. It wasn’t until 2014 that a European
country won the World Cup in South America. Germany beat Argentina 1-0 on that
occasion, replicating the scoreline of the 1990 final. FIFA reckons that,
globally, over a billion people watched the 2014 final on TV.
43. The
Golden Boot is awarded to whoever scores the most goals at a World Cup. The
record for one tournament is 13 which was set by Just Fontaine of France in
1958; four years later, six players shared the honours with just four goals
apiece. The 2014 winner was James Rodriguez of Colombia, who scored six. Only
one English player has ever won it – Gary Lineker, who scored six goals at the
1986 World Cup.
44. The
only player to have won the Golden Boot while playing for a team that was
knocked out in the first round was Russia’s Oleg Salenko, who scored six in
1994. This included five against Cameroon – a record for a player in one World
Cup match. Those were the only goals Salenko scored for his country (for which
he made eight appearances, having previously played for Ukraine in that
country’s first-ever international match).
45. Germany’s
Miroslav Klose has scored more World Cup goals – 16, over four tournaments –
than anyone else. Second on this particular list is Ronaldo of Brazil, with 15.
Pelé
is in fifth place with 12, and the highest-placed Englishman is Gary
Lineker, who’s in joint eighth place with ten goals, scored over the course of
two tournaments.
46. Geoff
Hurst of England remains the only player ever to have scored a hat-trick in a
World Cup final. You know when.
47. In
addition to the Golden Boot, there’s the Golden Ball which is awarded to
whoever is judged to have been the tournament’s best player. It was first
introduced in 1982 but has since been applied retrospectively to previous
tournaments (Bobby Charlton would have won it in 1966, apparently). The winner of this award is usually announced before the final,
which has at times back-fired as the winner’s appearance in
said final ended up being memorable for the wrong reasons, as witness Ronaldo in 1998 (he played in the final despite having suffered a convulsive fit hours before the kick-off) and
Zinedine Zidane in 2006 (he scored a penalty early on, but was sent off for head-butting Italy’s Marco Materazzi in extra time).
48. There’s
also a Golden Glove award, given to the tournament’s best goalkeeper. Initially
called the Lev Yashin Award (in honour of the legendary Soviet keeper), it was
first awarded in 1994. On four occasions – 1998, 2006, 2010 and 2014 – it has
been awarded to the goalkeeper of the winning team. In 2002, Germany’s Oliver
Kahn won both the Golden Glove and the Golden Ball.
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