Here’s a colorful way to catch up on the history of the previous 22 men’s World Cups as we brace for this summer’s thrills and drama.
A | B | C | D | E |F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
A
🇺🇸 Bruce Arena. U.S. Soccer fired Steve Sampson shortly after the USA’s three-loss performance at France 1998 and replaced him with the most accomplished American coach to date: Bruce Arena, who had guided Virginia to five NCAA Division I titles and D.C. United to the first two MLS crowns.
In his first year at the helm, Arena guided the USA to its first ever win over Germany (3-0), and a 1-0 over Argentina in another friendly. En route to its runner-up finish at the 1999 Confederations Cup, Arena’s team beat Germany again (2-0).
At the 2002 World Cup, Arena guided the USA to 3-2 upset over Portugal in its opener and a 1-1 tie with host South Korea that earned it passage to the knockout stage — a feat the USA had achieved only as host in 1994 and at the inaugural 1930 World Cup.
A 2-0 round-of-16 win over Mexico sent the USA to the quarterfinals. It lost, 1-0, to eventual runner-up Germany but achieved what remains its best World Cup performance since reaching the semifinals of the 13-team 1930 World Cup.
🏴 Ken Aston. Confusion at the 1966 World Cup — over whether Bobby and Jack Charlton had been cautioned in the game in which Argentine captain Antonio Rattin didn’t seem to understand he had been ejected by German referee Rudolf Kreitlein — prompted the invention by FIFA referee chairman Ken Aston of yellow and red cards.
Aston had been inspired while at a stoplight. “As I drove down Kensington High Street, the traffic light turned red. I thought, ‘Yellow, take it easy; red, stop, you’re off,'” he said.
The cards were introduced at the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, where no red cards were shown. At the 1974 World Cup, Turkish referee Doğan Babacan used the red card for the first time in World Cup history on Chile’s Carlos Caszely in its 1-0 loss to host West Germany. The red card has since been shown 153 more times.
🇲🇦 Atlas Lions. Heading into the 2022 World Cup, no African or Arab nation had ever reached the semifinals of a World Cup.
Led by midfielder Azzedine Ounahi, who 18 months earlier was toiling in the French third tier, Morocco opened by tying Croatia and won its group with wins over Belgium and Canada. It beat Spain in a shootout after a scoreless tie and edged Portugal 1-0 to make history with passage to the semifinals.
“We’re the Rocky Balboa of this World Cup,” Morocco coach Walid Regragui said. “We’re becoming the team that everyone loves.”
Morocco fell, 2-0, to France and then lost the third-place game, 2-1, but its run to a fourth-place finish sparked global celebrations among Arabs and Africans in an outpouring of pride and joy.
🇲🇽 Azteca. In 1968, Mexico became the first Latin American country to host the Olympics when it held the 19th Summer Games. The 114,000-seat Azteca Stadium, completed in 1966, hosted Olympic soccer. It became the first stadium to host two World Cup finals — Pele‘s Brazil beating Italy, 4-1, in 1970 and Diego Maradona‘s Argentina defeating West Germany, 3-2, in 1986. (Rio’s Maracana has hosted the 1950 and 2014 finals.)
Mexico City sits 2,240 meters (7,400 feet) above sea level. The heart of the metropolis of 22 million people sits on what was once an island in Lake Texcoco. Many of the city’s greatest buildings sink up to 12 inches per year into landfill.
Field-level stands are 10 yards from the sidelines. Despite Azteca’s gargantuan size, all seats offer unrestricted views of the field. Credit goes to architect Pedro Ramirez Vasquez, who also designed one of the world’s greatest museums — the Museo Nacional de Antropologia.
• 2026: Now with a capacity of 83,000, Azteca will become stadium to host three World Cups — five 2026 games, including the opener and two knockout stage matches.
🇮🇹 Azzurri: The Italian national team — with a nickname from wearing House of Savoy azure blue jerseys since their 1911 debut — won the first of its four World Cup titles when it hosted the second World Cup in 1934. Italy fielded four Argentine-born players of Italian descent, known as oriundi. But its biggest star was Milan-born playmaker Giuseppe Meazza, who debuted for the national team three years earlier at age 17. He became Italy’s first world-famous soccer player after leading Italy to a 2-1 final win over Czechoslovakia.
🎥 Watch (👇): World Cup 1934 final (highlights)
Four years later in France, the Azzurri first met Norway and was booed by political exiles as the players gave a Fascist salute before the game. They squeaked by the Norwegians before beating France and Brazil to reach the final against Hungary. The inside forward trio of Meazza, Silvio Piola and Giovanni Ferrari led Italy to a 4-2 win. Whereas four years earlier it won the World Cup with four Argentines, Italy had only one oriundo, a Uruguayan.
Italy beat West Germany, 3-1, in the 1982 final in Madrid and defeated France in a shootout after a scoreless tie in the 2006 final in Berlin.
B
🇺🇸 Esse Baharmast: The lone U.S. referee at the 1998 World Cup in France became the subject of major controversy for calling a penalty kick against defending champion Brazil that resulted in a 2-1 Norway win, eliminating Morocco.
“It was 36 hours of agony,” Baharmast said. “I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.” The media slammed Baharmast for a calling an infraction that none of the 16 TV cameras captured. British newspapers claimed the Iranian-born American referee didn’t have the experience for an important game.
But then a Swedish television station published a still frame showing Junior Baiano clearly pulling Tore Andre Flo’s jersey in the box.
Baharmast, who later reffed the inaugural MLS game in 1996 and the first MLS Cup, was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2022.
🎥 Watch: Esse Baharmast describe his decision to call a penalty for Norway
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🇺🇸 Walter Bahr. While a teacher at Frankford High School in his native Philadelphia, Bahr played on the USA team that beat England, 1-0, at the 1950 World Cup in Brazil. It was a ball from Bahr that Joe Gaetjens headed into England’s goal in Belo Horizonte for one of the World Cup’s greatest upsets.
Bahr scored in a 5-2 win over Cuba that qualified the USA for the World Cup in 1950 and often took charge of practices. “I was no leader,” Bahr said. “It just happened by accident that I was sometimes directing practice.” He said the USA’s first 1950 World Cup game revealed its potential: It led Spain, which would go on to finish fourth, on a 17th-minute goal until with nine minutes left the Spaniards struck three times for a 3-1 win. The USA lost, 5-2 to Chile in its final game.
Bahr, who won American Soccer League titles with the Philadelphia Nationals, captained the USA’s 1948 Olympic team. He started his illustrious college coaching career at his alma mater, Temple (1970-73), before taking charge of Penn State (1974-1988). Bahr long served as a U.S. Soccer ambassador and was its head of delegation for competitions such as the 1990 World Cup and youth World Cups.
• Family: Bahr’s sons Chris, Matt, and Casey all played in the NASL and Chris and Matt won Super Bowls as place kickers while daughter Davies Ann was an All-American gymnast.
• More: Remembering the great Walter Bahr (1927-2018)
🇧🇷 Belo Horizonte. The capital of the southeastern Brazilian state of Minas Gerais — “Beautiful Horizon” — is part of World Cup lore for two historic games.
At the 1950 World Cup, Joe Gaetjens‘ goal, set up by Walter Bahr, gave the USA a 38th-minute lead that with goalkeeping heroics by Frank Borghi held for 1-0 win over England. A team of American part-timers — Borghi was a funeral home director — had beaten “The Kings of Football.”
“If I hadn’t refereed the game myself, I would not have believed the result, no matter who had told me,” said Giovanni Galeati, the game’s Italian ref.
At the 2014 World Cup, Germany trounced host Brazil, 7-1, in the semifinals. It was 5-0 before the half-hour mark. Sixty-four years earlier, when Uruguay upset Brazil, 2-1, in Rio’s Maracana Stadium to win the 1950 World Cup, the debacle was dubbed Maracanazo, a word coined to describe a sudden catastrophe. The feeble Brazilian performance of 2014 became known as Mineirazo.
🇫🇷 Black, Blanc, Beur. The phrase “Black, Blanc, Beur” (“White, Black, North African”) was a popular slogan used to describe the host and champion French national team at the 1998 World Cup.
Les Bleus were celebrated as a symbol of a united, multicultural France at the time. In the starting lineup alone, Aimé Jacquet‘s squad included players were born in or the children of families with ties to Algeria, Armenia, Ghana, Guadeloupe and New Caledonia.
🇩🇪 Paul Breitner: Breitner was capped only 48 times for West Germany, but he holds the distinction of being the only German to score in two World Cup finals.
His penalty kick in the 25th minute brought the Germans back from 1-0 down to the Netherlands in the 1974 World Cup final after the Dutch were awarded a penalty kick straight off the kickoff. West Germany went on to win 2-1 on Gerd Müller’s goal shortly before halftime. In 1982, Breitner scored the lone German goal late in the final against Italy, which won 3-1.
Breitner played left back in 1974 and in midfield in 1982, but he was known for his adventurous play — and fierce shot.
He won five straight league titles with Bayern Munich and Real Madrid (1972-76).
He was one of six players to start when Bayern won the 1974 European Cup (4-0 over Atletico Madrid in a replay) and for West Germany in the 1974 World Cup final less than eight weeks later.
🎥 Watch (👇): Paul Breitner score from 35 yards (West Germany 1-0 Chile, 1974)
C
🇺🇸 Paul Caligiuri. The USA, after a 40-year absence, returned to the World Cup in 1990 thanks to Paul Caligiuri’s goal — “the shot Heard ’round the world” — that gave the USA a 1-0 victory at Trinidad & Tobago in the must-win final qualifying game.
A 1985 NCAA champion with UCLA, Caligiuri had debuted for the USA in 1984. In 1986, he played in the post-World Cup FIFA UNICEF Charity Match on the Americas team that featured Diego Maradona and Co., vs. The Rest of the World squad. Caligiuri impressed German midfielder Felix Magath, who became Hamburg SV general manager and signed Caligiuri in 1987.
After scoring one of the USA’s two goals at the 1990 World Cup, Caligiuri won the league-cup double with Hansa Rostock in final the East German season before it merged with the Bundesliga.
Caligiuri played every minute of the USA’s four 1994 World Cup games. He wrapped up his trailblazing career in Germany with St. Pauli to join MLS upon its 1996. He retired in 2001 after winning the U.S. Open Cup with the LA Galaxy.
🇺🇾 La Celeste. Uruguay, whose national team is nicknamed La Celeste (“The Sky Blue’), is per capita by far the most successful soccer nation.
Then with a population 2 million, Uruguay was named host of the first World Cup, in 1930, because it won the previous two Olympic tournaments and it offered to pay travel costs of all entrants. La Celeste beat Argentina, 4-2, in the final.
Uruguay clinched its second World Cup title in 1950 with a 2-1 comeback win over host Brazil in from of 200,000 fans. “Only three people have, with just one motion, silenced the Maracana: Frank Sinatra, Pope John Paul II and me,” said Alcides Ghiggia, who scored the gamewinner in the comeback victory.
Uruguay (current population 3.4 million) finished fourth in 1954, 1970 and 2010, and now heads its 14th World Cup. “Other countries have their history. Uruguay has its soccer,” said Ondino Viera, Uruguay’s coach at the 1966 World Cup.
🇲🇽 Color television. The first World Cup televised live worldwide via satellite and in color was the 1970 tournament hosted by Mexico.
To enable European television to air games in prime time for its audience, organizers scheduled kickoffs of some weekend games, including the final, in high noon heat. Nevertheless, this World Cup is still considered to have provided the most entertaining soccer in World Cup history, thanks much to Brazil — whose magic in bright yellow shirts and blue shorts in the green grass was finally witnessed globally in color.
Its attack-minded Samba-ball produced 19 goals in six games and a 4-1 win over Italy. The tournament’s 2.97 goals-per-game average has not been exceeded since.
(Also new at the 1970 World Cup, substitutions — two per game.)
• 1978: Argentine television was only black and white when it was named host of the 1978 World Cup. But FIFA required the Argentines to provide color broadcasts for the world feed. The host country’s residents still watched in black and white as only journalists viewing games in press centers got the color feed.
🇭🇷 Croatia. Yugoslavia’s rich soccer history includes being one of 13 teams at the inaugural 1930 World Cup, where it made the first of its two semifinal appearances. When its breakup began in 1991, Yugoslavia’s population was 23.5 million.
Former Yugoslav republics Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Slovenia have since qualified for the World Cup. North Macedonia and former Yugoslav province Kosovo, both vying to debut, and Bosnia & Herzegovina are in separate 2026 World Cup UEFA playoffs.
Croatia, which qualified directly, finished third in its 1998 debut and at the 2022 World Cup. In 2018, Croatia, with a population of 3.8 million, became the first nation with a population of less than 10 million to reach the final since 1950. It fell to France while Luka Modric won the Ballon d’Or.
“Croatia lives soccer 24 hours a day,” said 1998 World Cup Golden Boot winner Davor Šuker.
🇵🇪 Teofilo Cubillas. Underachieving Peru has reached the knockout stage of the World Cup twice, during the heyday of “The Peruvian Pele.”
“Nene” Cubillas‘ feat of scoring five goals at two World Cups — at the 1970 World Cup at age 21 and the 1978 World Cup — has only been matched, albeit in more games, by Germans Miroslav Klose (2002, 2006) and Thomas Müller (2010, 2014). Cubillas’ 1978 instep free-kick goal against Scotland ranks among the greatest World Cup goals ever.
🎥 Watch (👇): The Teófilo Cubillas mini-doc: ‘Peru’s Greatest Ever Player’
In 1979, Cubillas joined the NASL’s Fort Lauderdale Strikers, where he teamed up with West Germany’s leading World Cup scorer at the time, Gerd Müller. Cubillas scored 59 goals and assisted on 61 in his five NASL seasons. In 1982, he played in his third World Cup, at which Peru tied eventual champion Italy but exited at the group stage.
When the Strikers folded in 1983, Cubillas returned to his first club, Alianza Lima, for two years. He returned to Florida, where he played for revived Strikers (1988) and the Miami Sharks (1989) in the ASL — and settled in the Miami area.
D
🇺🇸 Clint Dempsey. Raised in Nacogdoches, Texas, where he played high school and adult Latin league ball, Clint Dempsey commuted six hours roundtrip to play club ball in Dallas. The skills he honed led him to three World Cup appearances. He scored in each, a feat unmatched by an American.
His goal in a 2-1 loss to Ghana was the only goal scored by a U.S. player at the 2006 World Cup. (The USA tied eventual champion Italy 1-1 in their second game thanks to Cristian Zaccardo‘s own goal.) At the 2010 World Cup, Dempsey’s long-range-shot, after faking out England captain Steven Gerrard, beat goalkeeper Robert Green and earned the USA a 1-1 tie in their opener, and led to its winning the group.
At the 2014 World Cup, Dempsey scored 30 seconds after kickoff in the USA’s 2-1 opening win vs. Ghana. He scored in a 2-2 tie with Portugal after suffering a broken nose. He scored four goals in 2018 World Cup qualifying, but the USA fell short, denying him a chance to score in a fourth World Cup.
🇫🇷 Didier Deschamps. At France’s helm since 2012, Didier Deschamps will be coaching Les Bleus for the fourth and last time at the World Cup this summer.
Deschamps was a natural choice — the captain of the 1998 World Cup championship team and a successful club coach at Monaco, Juventus and Marseille.
In 1998, he smoothly integrated young talent into a team that steadily upped its game after an unspectacular Group C first place in which it scored only three goals. Wins over Argentina (4-3), Uruguay (2-0) and Belgium (1-0) led to France’s 4-2 final win over Croatia.
Deschamps, whose playing career also included a title win at the 2000 European Championship, became the fourth man to play in and coach a World Cup final. And the third to win in both manners.
When Deschamps retires, Zinedine Zidane is lined up to take over as French head coach.
World Cup finals, played and coached
• Mario Zagalo, Brazil: *1958, *1962 (player), *1970, 1998 (coach)
• Franz Beckenbauer, West Germany: 1966, *1974 (player), 1986, *1990 (coach)
• Rudi Voeller, West Germany: 1986, *1990 (player), 2002 (coach)
• Didier Deschamps, France: *1998 (player), *2018 (coach), 2022 (coach)
*Won World Cup. will be coaching Les Bleus for the fourth and final time at the World Cup in 2026.
🇸🇳 Papa Bouba Diop. Regional rivals Japan and South Korea competed so fiercely to host the first World Cup outside Europe and the Americas that FIFA settled on making them co-hosts of the 2002 World Cup.
Each country provided 10 venues. Japan got the final and the Koreans got the opening game, which pitted defending champion France against its former colony, Senegal.
Papa Bouba Diop earned the nickname “The Wardrobe” for his 6-foot-5 frame, but he scored, while on the ground, for a 1-0 Senegal win. France exited winless and goalless while Senegal reached the quarterfinals, losing to Turkey.
“I made Senegal famous,” said Bouba Diop, who died of ALS at the age of 42 in 2020.
The Lions of Teranga have qualified for the 2026 World Cup — their fourth World Cup — where they open on June 16 in East Rutherford, New Jersey, against … France.
• 2002 World Cup: Soccer America readers share their memories of the magical ride in South Korea
🇺🇸 Aldo ‘Buff’ Donelli. The USA and Mexico share a 1,900-mile border, but their qualifying game for the 1934 World Cup in Italy took place in Rome, because they couldn’t agree on travel arrangements between New York City and Mexico City.
On May 23, the U.S. team received an audience with Pope Pius XI. On May 24, at the Stadio Nazionale del Partito Nazionale Fascista with Italian dictator Benito Mussolini among the crowd of 10,000, Aldo ‘Buff’ Donelli scored four goals in the USA’s 4-2 win over Mexico. Three days later, the USA opened the single-elimination World Cup against host Italy and lost, 7-1, with Donelli scoring its lone goal.
Those would be the only two USMNT games played by Donelli, as the Pennsylvanian returned to American football coaching. In 1941 he simultaneously coached Duquesne University and the Pittsburgh Steelers. He later coached the NFL’s Cleveland Rams (1944), Boston University (1947-56) and Columbia University (1957-1967).
Most USMNT goals in a game
1. Archie Stark vs. Canada (1925 friendly), 4 goals.
2. Aldo Donelli vs. Mexico (1934 World Cup qualifying), 4 goals.
3. *Joe-Max Moore vs. El Salvador (1993 friendly), 4 goals
4. Landon Donovan vs. Cuba (2003 Gold Cup), 4 goals.
5. Jesus Ferreira vs. Grenada (2022 Concacaf Nations League), 4 goals
* Scored a fifth goal, but the referee, who didn’t see it, gave a goal kick after the ball went through a hole in the net.
🇺🇸 Landon Donovan: There is a strong case to be made that Landon Donovan is the greatest player in U.S. men’s history.
He won a record six MLS titles — two with the San Jose Earthquakes (2001 and 2003) and four with the LA Galaxy (2005, 2011, 2012 and 2014) — but what sets him apart is his success with the USMNT, which includes four Gold Cup titles (2002, 2005, 2007 and 2013).
Donovan’s USMNT record includes 57 career goals (tied with Clint Dempsey for the most in USMNT history), of which a record five were scored in the World Cup (against Poland and Mexico in 2002 and against Slovenia, Algeria, and Ghana — three straight games — in 2010).
Donovan was 20 when he started all five games for the USA at the 2002 World Cup, where he won the award as tournament’s top young player. Eight years later, the USA was on the verge of exiting the tournament without a loss when he scored the most iconic goal in USMNT history, putting away the rebound of Dempsey’s shot in stoppage time to give the USA a 1-0 win over Algeria that moved it into the knockout stage.
🎥 Watch: The final 6 minutes of USA vs. Algeria
🎙️Listen: Ian Darke on his ‘Go, go USA!’ call of Landon Donovan’s goal
🎙️Listen: Landon Donovan and Tim Howard relive the Algeria goal
E
🇵🇹 Eusebio. While Pele was the victim of the era’s violent soccer trend during the 1996 World Cup, Mozambican-born Eusebio (the “Black Panther”) ensured himself a place in history as one of the world’s greatest players by leading Portugal to third place.
Eusebio scored three first-round goals, including two that helped eliminate Brazil, and four goals in a 5-3 quarterfinal win over North Korea – which had upset Italy in the first round and took a 3-0 lead over Portugal. Eusebio finished with a tournament-leading nine goals.
• In the USA: After winning 11 Portuguese league title and a European Cup with Benfica, Eusebio won the 1976 NASL title with the Toronto Metros-Croatia. He also played for NASL’s Boston Minutemen and the Las Vegas Quicksilvers, and the ASL’s New Jersey Americans.
F
🇰🇼 Sheikh Fahad. Sheikh Fahad Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah, a member of the Kuwaiti ruling family and president of the Kuwaiti soccer federation, was at the center of the most bizarre goal reversal in World Cup history.
In the 1982 group game between Kuwait and France, Les Bleus were leading 3-1 when midfielder Alain Giresse scored a goal. The Kuwaiti players had stopped playing after hearing a whistle they thought had come from Soviet referee Miroslav Stupar.
Before the kickoff to resume play, Sheikh Fahad rushed on the field to protest the goal, which Stupar then disallowed, drawing the ire of Michel Hidalgo, who had to be restrained by police from approaching Stupar. France went on to win the match 4-1.
Fahad was killed by the Iraqi military at Dasman Palace in Kuwait City on the first day of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Stupar never refereed another international match.
Watch (👇): The story of Alain Giresse’s disallowed goal
🇩🇪 Fan Festivals. “A Time to Make Friends” was the official slogan of the 2006 World Cup during which Germany aimed to prove itself a “hospitable, joyful and modern nation bursting with ideas,” said ChancellorAngela Merkel. The welcome extended to ticketless foreign fans, who were traditionally deemed a security risk and discouraged from traveling to major tournaments.
Germany wanted as many guests as possible and set up public-viewing areas, the Fan Fests, at all 12 venues. Organizers also believed that enabling ticketless fans to enjoy the World Cup atmosphere would deter violent behavior, because they wouldn’t be wandering around frustrated, looking for trouble.
Organizers had estimated that 8 million people would attend the Fan Fests, but more than twice as many did. In Berlin, nearly 1 million people jammed into the Fan Mile for Germany games.
• This summer: Setting up Fan Festivals was a FIFA requirement for 2026 World Cup venues, but challenges such as security costs and licensing disputes have prompted a scaling back of initial plans in several host cities.
🇫🇷 Just Fontaine: Born in Morocco to a Spanish mother, Just Fontaine began his career with USM Casablanca before moving to France, where he partnered with another French great, Raymond Kopa, at Reims.
The duo spearheaded the French offense at the 1958 World Cup, where Les Bleus rolled over opponents until falling to Brazil 5-2 in the semis.
Fontaine’s four goals in the 6-3 win over West Germany for third place gave him 13 goals in the tournament, still a World Cup record for goals in a single tournament.
His career ended in 1962 at the age of only aged 28. He had hardly played for two years after suffering a double leg fracture.
“We talk a lot about my record but I would definitely have swapped it for another five or six years, because soccer was my passion,” said Fontaine, who died in 2023 at the age of 89. “I was at the very top, and I was earning a lot of money at the time. It was not the money you see nowadays, it was five times the minimum wage, whereas now it would be more like one hundred times that.”
🎥 Watch (👇): Just Fontaine’s 13 goals at the 1958 World Cup
🇺🇸 Brad Friedel. Goalkeeping was a big part of the USA’s success during the span of 1990-2014 when it went to all seven World Cups and advanced to the knockout stage four times.
Tony Meola started in 1990 and 1998 and returned as a backup in 2002. Kasey Keller started the first two games in 1998 and all three in 2006. Tim Howard started all eight games over 2010 and 2014, ending with the memorable match against Belgium in 2014 (SA’s USMNT Report Card).
The best single tournament in goal was the work of Brad Friedel, who started all five games in the 2002 run to the quarterfinals.
Friedel was in goal for wins over Portugal 3-2 and Mexico 2-0 that saw Bruce Arena‘s boys through to the quarterfinals. He was just the second goalkeeper in World Cup history to save two spot kicks in regular time or overtime of the same tournament The first keeper: Pole Jan Tomaszewski in 1974.
Brad Friedel (World Cup 2002, saved penalty kicks)
• 74th minute on Lee Eul-yong (score: South Korea 0-1 USA; final score: South Korea 1-1 USA)
• 76th minute on Maciej Zurawski (score: Poland 3-0 USA; final score: Poland 3-1 USA.)
From now through June 8, Soccer America will publish a series of trivia quizzes, with multiple chances to win a free annual subscription.
G
🇺🇸 Joe Gaetjens (1950). The goal scored in the USA’s 1-0 upset of England at the 1950 World Cup came off the head of Haitian-born Joe Gaetjens, who was on break from studying at Columbia University and working as a restaurant dishwasher in New York.
Leading scorer of ASL champion Brookhattan before the World Cup, he moved to Paris Racing Club after the tournament. Gaetjens returned to Haiti in 1954 and was last seen on July 8, 1964, when he was arrested at work by the Tonton Macoute, Haitian dictator Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier’s secret police. It is presumed he was killed at the Fort Dimanche prison.
Gaetjens was known to be apolitical, but members of his family had worked for Louis Dejoie, a rival to Duvalier in his 1957 run for the presidency. Other members of Gaetjens’ family had fled Haiti in the period leading up to Duvalier declaring himself “president for life” in 1964.
🇪🇸 Gijón. The northern Spain city was infamously host of a 1982 World Cup that, through no fault of its own, would be known as “The Disgrace of Gijon” and “Non-aggression Pact of Gijon.”
When West Germany, a 2-1 loser to Algeria in its opener, faced neighbor Austria in their final group game in Gijon, a 1-0 German win would see both the Germans and the Austrians through to the second round at Algeria’s expense.
After Germany went ahead in the 10th minute, the two teams spent the rest of the game hardly trying to score or even compete. The crowd of 40,000 jeered and chanted “Algeria, Algeria.” Spanish fans waved white hankerchiefs and chanted ‘Que se besen’ (“Let them kiss”). Algerian supporters waved cash at the players, and a German fan was seen burning a West Germany flag in disgust. The game indeed ended 1-0. Since then, FIFA schedules final group games at the same time to prevent collusion.
H
🏴 Geoff Hurst. At the 1966 World Cup, England coach Al Ramsey changed his team’s formation from a 4-3-3 to a 4-4-2. After starting slow with a 0-0 tie against Uruguay, the “Wingless Wonders” – inspired in attack by Bobby Charlton with a defense marshaled by Bobby Moore — reeled off wins against Mexico, France, Argentina and Portugal to reach the final against West Germany.
An 89th-minute goal by Wolfgang Weber tied the game at 2-2 and sent it into overtime. Geoff Hurst was the only player to score a World Cup final hat trick until Kylian Mbappé in 2022.
Hurst’s strike to give England a 3-2 lead was highly controversial as it hit the underside of the crossbar and bounced off the ground and back into play — with linesman Tofiq Bahramov ruling it had crossed the line. Hurst scored his third in the final minute for a 4-2 win and 93,000 fans in Wembley celebrated as Queen Elizabeth II presented Moore the trophy.
• Trivia: Hurst was one of the five 1966 World Cup final starters who played in the NASL later in their careers: Hurst (Seattle Sounders), Gordon Banks (Fort Lauderdale Strikers), Bobby Moore (San Antonio Thunder, Seattle Sounders), Alan Ball (Philadelphia Fury, Vancouver Whitecaps); Franz Beckenbauer (New York Cosmos).
I
🇪🇸 Andres Iniesta. Spain, despite its rich soccer history, had one World Cup final four appearance to its name — finishing fourth in 1950 — going into the 2010 World Cup. It reached its first final, and faced the Netherlands.
The Dutch had played sparkling soccer but turned the final into an ugly affair that featured 14 yellow cards and one red card (although referee Howard Webb let Nigel de Jong stay on the field after he kung fu kicked Xabi Alonso in the chest in the first half).
Andres Iniesta’s goal with four minutes left in overtime gave Spain the 1-0 win and its first World Cup title.
🎥 Watch (👇): Andres Iniesta’s winner, from every angle
J
🇧🇷 Jairzinho. Nicknamed the o Furacão (the Hurricane), Jairzinho scored in each game of Brazil’s six games during its 1970 World Cup win. Only Uruguay’s Alcide Ghiggia pulled off such a feat, but it was during the 1950 World Cup when Uruguay played only four games to win the title.
A winger who succeeded his hero Garrincha on the Seleção, Jairzinho scored twice in Brazil’s opening win over Czechoslovakia (4-1), then scored once against England (1-0), Romania (3-2), Peru (4-2), Uruguay (3-1) and, in the final, against Italy (4-1).
🎥 Watch (👇): Jairzinho’s solo golazo against Czechoslovakia
Jairzinho spent much of his post-playing career as a youth coach and is credited for discovering a 14-year-old Ronaldo while coaching São Cristóvão. Ronaldo led Brazil to its fifth World Cup title in 2002.
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🇩🇪 Der Kaiser. The Netherlands had dazzled at the 1974 World Cup with Totaalvoetbal going to the final against host West Germany, which also had a version of “Total Soccer.” Franz “Der Kaiser” Beckenbauer had revolutionized the role of the libero position. Originally an offensive midfielder, when he became a sweeper at Bayern Munich, Beckenbauer decided he could remain an offensive force with ventures forward that unsettled opponents used to man-marking. With a 2-1 win over Johan Cruyff and Co., the Germans lifted the World Cup in Munich.
Beckenbauer also starred for the Germans when they finished runner-up at the 1966 World Cup and third place at the 1970 World Cups. In 1977, while the reigning European Player of the Year, Beckenbauer joined Pele at the New York Cosmos. He played in the NASL through 1980, returned for the 1983 season, and won a total of three NASL titles.
His campaigning landed Germany the 2006 World Cup and he served as head of the organizing committee hailed for pulling off a “Summer Fairytale” tournament that included unprecedented fan festivals.
🇦🇷 Mario Kempes. Ahead of the 1978 World Cup, Argentina was one of the few world powers not to have lifted a World Cup, and Carlos Luis Menotti was charged with making it happen on home soil. Menotti advocated an emphasis on skill and his detractors mocked his style as fulibito — little soccer.
Despite Argentina’s top talent having been long been lured to Europe, he also declared he’d field a squad of domestic players. His one exception was Valencia’s Mario Kempes.
The Dutch were without Johan Cruyff, but still reached the final. There waited Argentina. Kempes scored his fifth and sixth goals of the tournament in a 3-1 overtime victory for the host, an attacked-minded team that featured three forwards and midfield motor Ossie Ardiles.
🇩🇪 Jurgen Klinsmann. The son of a baker, Jurgen Klinsmann earned his own baker’s license at age 18. But by age 20, his prolific and frequently spectacular scoring set him on a path toward soccer superstardom.
With VfB Stuttgart, he won the 1987-88 Bundesliga golden boot and he helped West Germany win the bronze medal at the 1988 Olympics. He had one of the best individual performances of 1990 World Cup in the Germans’ 2-1 round of 16 win over the Netherlands and helped them win their first World Cup since 1974.
Klinsmann also played for Inter Milan, Monaco, Bayern Munich and Tottenham, and was known for vacationing in the USA and his mastery of foreign languages. He added Spanish to English, French and Italian when moved to the USA in 1998 with his American wife. He famously commuted from Southern California to Germany after becoming Germany’s coach in 2004 to prepare it for the Germany-hosted 2006 World Cup. Klinsmann stepped down after Germans took third place, and in 2011 became the USA’s head coach.
In one of American soccer’s biggest controversies, he cut Landon Donovan from the 2014 World Cup team. His squad included five Germany-raised players and exited in the round of 16. Klinsmann was let go by U.S. Soccer after the USA opened the final round of 2018 World Cup qualifying with a 2-1 home loss to Mexico and a 4-0 loss at Costa Rica.
Klinsmann since coached Hertha Berlin — for 10 games during the 2019-20 Bundesliga season — and his 12-month stint at South Korea’s helm ended in February 2024.
🇩🇪 Miroslav Klose. Three years after playing in Germany’s fifth division at age 20, Miroslav Klose, during Germany’s runner-up finish at the 2002 World Cup, became the first player to score five headers at World Cup.
He scored another five goals — four with his feet — at the 2006 World Cup, and four goals at the 2010 World Cup. His second of two goals during Germany’s 2014 World Cup-winning campaign, in its 7-1 semifinal win over host Brazil, was 16th at a World Cup and broke Ronaldo’s record of 15.
Klose, who moved to Germany from his native Poland at age 8, finished his career with Lazio in 2016. He became a youth coach at his former club Bayern Munich, where Malik Tillman played on Klose’s U-17 team. Klose now coaches FC Nuremberg.
📋 Chasing the record: Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé head to the 2026 World Cup with 13 and 12 career World Cup goals, respectively.
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🇧🇷 Leônidas: Leônidas da Silva was the first great Brazilian star, one of the first Black players to make a name for himself in Brazilian soccer in the 1930s.
He was nicknamed “The Black Diamond,” and his success at Flamengo helped make the Rio club the most popular team in Brazil.
Leônidas played in two World Cups for Brazil, scoring in all five of games he played in 1934 — a 3-1 loss to Spain in the opening game of the knockout competition — and 1938 — when he led the tournament with eight goals in four games.
He opened the 1938 World Cup with four goals in Brazil’s 6-5 win over Poland in Strasbourg and scored in both games against Czechoslovakia in the quarterfinals in Bordeaux, in the 1-1 tie, a match dubbed the “Battle of Bordeaux” for the nasty fouling by both teams, and in the replay, a 2-1 win.
🎥 Watch: The Battle of Bordeaux
Brazil was so confident of beating the defending champion Italy in the semifinals, two days after their replay, in Marseille that Leônidas was rested. Unfortunately, Brazil lost 2-1 to the Azzurri, who went on to repeat as World Cup champions.
Brazil returned to Bordeaux for the third-place game, where Leônidas scored twice in the 4-2 victory over Sweden.
🇸🇪 Nils Liedholm. Sweden had won the gold medal at the 1948 Olympic soccer tournament in London, but its stars, Gunnar Gren, Gunnar Nordahl and Nils Liedholm, were dropped from the national team by the Swedish federation, which banned pro players.
The so-called Gre-No-Li trio excelled at AC Milan — leading the Rossoneri to the 1951 Serie A title, its first in 44 years. Sweden allowed pros for the 1958 World Cup it hosted, although Nordahl was out of the picture by then.
Liedholm, known as Il Barone (The Baron) in Italy, captained the team and remains the oldest player (35) to score in a World Cup final. But Brazil recovered from his opening strike to win 5-2 and become the first team to lift the trophy outside its continent.
• Backdoor qualifiers for 2026: Sweden’s best finish since 1958 was third place in 1994. It failed to qualify for the 2022 World Cup after reaching the 2018 quarterfinals. Sweden failed to win any of their six qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup but qualified for the playoffs thanks to its UEFA Nations League ranking. It qualified for this summer’s World Cup with a 3-2 win over Poland.
🏴 Gary Lineker. At the 1986 World Cup, England started with a 1-0 loss to Portugal and a scoreless tie with Morocco but reached the second round thanks to Lineker’s hat trick in a 3-0 win over Poland. Lineker struck twice in a 3-0 round of 16 win over Paraguay, which featured former New York Cosmos Julio Cesar Romero and Roberto Cabanas, to set up a quarterfinal clash with Argentina that was hyped up because the 1982 Malvinas/Falklands War.
🎥 Watch (👇): Gary Lineker’s 10 World Cup goals
Lineker scored his sixth goal to become tournament’s Golden Boot leading scorer but Diego Maradona stole the show with his “Hand of God” goal and his magnificent second in which he dribbled through half the England team.
During England’s fourth-place finish at the 1990 World Cup, Lineker won the Bronze Boot with four goals as England — one vs. Ireland, two penalty kicks against Cameroon, and a strike in England’s semifinal loss to West Germany.
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🇿🇦 Nelson Mandela: South Africa, the first African nation to host the World Cup, had been banned, because of its Apartheid government, from international soccer from 1963 to 1992.
Nelson Mandela, who had been imprisoned for 27 years, credited South Africa’s exclusion from international sports — which also kept its rugby team, the Springboks, out of world championship play — for influencing the positive outcome in the 1992 whites-only referendum that ended Apartheid rule.
As South Africa’s first post-Apartheid president Mandela embraced sports as a way to unify and celebrate what he called the “Rainbow Nation,” and led the campaign to host in 2010.
Organizing Committee CEO Danny Jordaan said the World Cup would “strengthen our democracy … strengthen and consolidate the process of nation-building.”
Mandela, a week before his 92nd birthday, attended the 2010 final in Soccer City stadium in Johannesburg. He died Dec. 5, 2013.
🇧🇷 Maracanazo: Brazil has won a record five World Cup titles (1958, 1962, 1970, 1994 and 2002) but has also experienced plenty of heartache.
Nothing compares to the national trauma surrounding the final game of the 1950 World Cup at the Maracana in Rio de Janeiro. All Brazil needed was a tie against neighbor Uruguay to clinch first place in the round-robin final round.
But Uruguay won 2-1 before 173,850 fans at the Maracanã. The loss has forever been known as the “Maracanazo” (the Maracanã blow). Considering everything surrounding the match a curse, the Seleção abandoned their traditional white kits for the now-famous yellow shirts. (It wasn’t until 2019 that they wore white again.)
Pelé was only 9 in 1950 when Brazil lost to Uruguay. He later confessed it was the first time he ever saw his father cry.
🎥 Watch (👇): Brazil vs. Uruguay, 1950 (Highlights)
🇦🇷 Diego Maradona. The Argentine dominated the 1986 World Cup as no player ever had, inspiring an otherwise unspectacular Argentine team to the title.
Maradona scored both goals in the 2-1 semifinal win over Belgium — the team that had beat up on him at the 1982 World Cup. He was hounded by Lothar Matthäus in the final against West Germany, but hit the pass that set up Jorge Burruchaga’s gamewinner in the 3-2 victory.
It was the quarterfinal against England for which Maradona will always be remembered for his “Hand of God” goal and his magnificent second in which he dribbled through half the English team.
Maradona also played at the 1990 World Cup, where Argentina lost to West Germany 1-0 on a late penalty kick, and the 1994 World Cup, where Argentina opened with a 4-0 win over Greece and 2-1 victory over Nigeria. But his international career ended when he was suspended for failing a doping test for ephedrine after the Nigeria match.
🇩🇪 Lothar Matthäus. Germany’s most capped player, with 150, in 1998 became the first field player to appear in five World Cups. Lothar Matthäus scored four goals while captaining West Germany to its third World Cup win in 1990.
Matthäus’ record of most World Cup games (25) was beaten by Lionel Messi when the Argentine, in his fifth World Cup, played his 26th game in Argentina’s final win over France.
Lothar Matthäus (left) consoles Chris Waddle, who missed his spot kick in West Germany’s 4-3 shootout win after their 1990 World Cup quarterfinal ended in a 1-1 tie. (Photo by Paul Popper/Popperfoto via Getty Images/FIFA MediaHub)
After winning six Bundesliga titles with Bayern Munich and a Serie A crown with Inter Milan, Matthäus finished his career in MLS with the MetroStars (now New York Red Bulls) at age 39. He helped them reach the MLS Cup semifinals a year after their last-place finish.
🇺🇸 Clint Mathis. One of the most important goals in the USA’s World Cup history came off the foot of a Mohawk-sporting Clint Mathis at the 2002 World Cup.
Raised in Conyers, Georgia, Mathis played ball at the University of South Carolina and was drafted by the LA Galaxy. In World Cup 2002 qualifying, Mathis scored in a 4-0 must-win victory over Barbados and the gamewinner in a 2-1 win over Honduras. He missed much of the final round of qualifying with an ACL injury but recovered in time for the 2002 World Cup, before which he became the first MLS player featured on Sports Illustrated’s cover.
After Mathis stayed on the bench for the opening 3-2 win over Portugal, Coach Bruce Arena started him against host South Korea. In the 24th minute, Mathis settled a John O’Brien pass with his right foot and half-volleyed it into the net with his left foot from 14 yards. The point earned from the 1-1 tie ultimately qualified the USA for the knockout stage, where a 2-0 win over Mexico sent it to the quarterfinals — its best finish at a World Cup since a semifinal appearance at the 1930 World Cup, and yet to be matched.
🎥 Watch: Clint Mathis’ goal against South Korea
🇦🇷 Lionel Messi. One of only six men to have played in five World Cups — alongside Antonio Carbajal, Lothar Matthäus, Rafa Marquez, Andres Guardado and Cristiano Ronaldo — Lionel Messi led Argentina to the 2022 World Cup title.
The victory added the missing trophy to Messi’s national team resume — he had already won U-20 World Cup, Olympics and Copa America crowns — and erased the key distinction that Diego Maradona held over him.
📋 Lionel Messi’s World Cup records
4 First player to score in four successive knockout games (in Qatar 2022).
5 Only player to register an assist in five World Cups
6 Knockout-round assists, tied with Pele
13 Most World Cup goals by an Argentine
16 years, 184 days Biggest span between first and last World Cup goals
In 2025, Messi, fellow Argentine Rodrigo De Paul, and Spaniard Sergio Busquets became the first World Cup winners to win the MLS Cup.
• Trivia: Messi was named after Alabama-bred singer Lionel Richie, a favorite of his mother, Celia Cuccittini.
🇨🇲 Roger Milla. Cameroon became the first sub-Saharan African nation to reach the second round, where it beat Colombia in the round of 16 at the 1990 World Cup. The Indomitable Lions were led by 38-year-old Roger Milla, who scored four goals, each celebrated with a dance near the corner flag.
In the quarterfinals, the Indomitable Lions led England 2-1 with seven minutes left but paid the price for their reckless tackling and fell 3-2 in overtime on two Gary Lineker penalty kicks.
At the 1994 World Cup, Milla, at age 42, became the oldest player to score a World Cup goal in Cameroon’s 6-1 loss to Russia.
🎥 Watch: Roger Milla’s World Cup goals
🇩🇪 Miracle of Bern. West German beat Hungary 3-2 in the 1954 World Cup final played on the rainy Wankdorf Stadium field in Bern, one of the greatest upsets in World Cup history.
Hungary brought a 28-game undefeated streak into the match. It included a 6-3 win in 1953 and 7-1 win in 1954 over England and an 8-3 win over the Germans in the group stage of the World Cup.
The Germans were delighted that a rainstorm had soaked the field. They sported light-weight shoes with interchangeable screw-in studs designed by adidas founder Adi Dassler.
Watch: 1954 World Cup final (Highlights)
🇩🇪 Gerd Müller. His 14th career World Cup was the gamewinner in West Germany’s 2-1 win over the Netherlands in the 1974 World Cup final and Gerd Mueller‘s record held until Brazil’s Ronaldo scored his 15th at the 2006 World Cup.
The World Cup title followed Germany’s third-place finish at the 1970 World Cup during which the stocky 5-foot-9 Mueller scored 10 goals in six games.
🎥 Watch: Every Gerd Muller World Cup goal for Germany (1970-1974)
“Der Bomber” had an uncanny knack hitting the net no matter how he received the ball and had 68 goals in 62 games when he retired from national team play after the 1974 World Cup at age 28. He won his second and third European Cups with Bayern Munich before finishing his career with the Fort Lauderdale Strikers, scoring 40 NASL goals in 80 games in 1979-1981.
• More: From Gerd Müller to Lionel Messi, Fort Lauderdale has been home to soccer’s greats | Remembering the great Gerd Mueller: A goalscorer like no other
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🇨🇷 Keylor Navas. At the 2014 World Cup, Costa Rica was drawn into a group with three former World Cup winners and went undefeated vs. Uruguay (3-1), Italy (1-0) and England (0-0). The Ticos reached the quarterfinals for the first time in their history with a shootout win over Greece after a 1-1 round of 16 tie. Navas stopped Theofanis Gekas’ spot kick after several big saves in regulation and overtime.
The Netherlands ousted Costa Rica in the quarterfinals with a shootout win after a scoreless tie. Yet Navas was named Man of the Match, and became the first goalkeeper to take that honor in three games at a World Cup.
🎥 Watch (👇): Spectacular Keylor Navas at Brazil 2014
Now 39, Navas plays for UNAM in Mexico. He started his career with Saprissa and his time abroad included stints with Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain. Navas earned his 126th against Honduras in November 2025. He pulled off the shutout, but the scoreless tie sealed the Ticos’ elimination from the 2026 World Cup — denying Navas a fourth World Cup.
🇰🇵 North Korea. England’s hopes that Australia would feature in the 1966 World Cup were dashed when the Commonwealth nation lost to Communist North Korea in qualifying. Britain, which had sent 81,000 troops to the Korean War (1950-53), did not recognize the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and contemplated denying visas. But the Foreign Office comprehended FIFA’s mandate to move the tournament if a participating team was denied entry.
To prevent the playing of the North Korean national anthem, organizers decreed team anthems would be played only ahead of the opener and final. But the North Koreans were embraced by their hosts in Middlesbrough, where they played all three group games, including a 1-1 tie with Chile and a historic 1-0 upset over Italy on a goal by Pak Doo Ik.
The Italian players were pelted with rotten fruit upon landing Genoa while some 3,000 Middlesbrough residents traveled to Liverpool to support North Korea in its quarterfinal against Portugal. The Koreans took a 3-0 lead but lost, 5-3, as Eusebio scored four.
The 2002 documentary, “The Game of Their Lives,” dispelled the myth that the North Korean regime punished the players for the loss to Portugal. They were in fact treated as heroes.
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📘Offside. After the 1990 World Cup, the offside rule was changed from requiring an onside attacker to have “at least two of his opponents nearer their own goal line” — to “he is not nearer to his opponents’ goal line than at least two of his opponents.”
Essentially, it meant being level with the second-to-last opponent was onside, a rule change longtime Soccer America columnist Paul Gardner had started advocating in 1977.
The even-is-on offside rule, as well as the 1992-introduced ban on goalkeepers handling passes from their teammates’ feet, debuted at the 1994 World Cup. The per game scoring average at USA 1994 increased to 2.71 from 2.21 in Italy 1990.
🇮🇹 Oriundi. Italy hosted and won the 1934 World Cup with a 2-1 win over Czechoslovakia in the final.
Vittorio Pozzo’s starting lineup included three players of Italian origin — oriundi — who lived in Argentina, the 1930 World Cup runner-up that was upset at Italy for poaching its players and sent a third-string team to 1934 tournament.
The players included Luis Monti, who played for Argentina in the 1930 World Cup final (making him the only player to appear in two consecutive World Cup finals for different nations), Enrique Guaita, the outside right who scored the winning goal in the semifinal against Austria, and Raimundo Orsi, the outside right who scored the equalizer in the final.
Pozzo, who selected five oriundi on the 1934 team, famously defended his inclusion of those from the large Italian diaspora in South America, stating: “If they can die for Italy, they can play for Italy.”
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• Panenka. The cheeky technique used on penalty kicks was introduced by Antonín Panenka to seal a shootout victory for Czechoslovakia over West Germany in the 1976 European Championship final.
The Panenka has been tried five times at the World Cup and converted four times. The USA’s 5-1 loss to Czechoslovakia in its return to the World Cup after 40 years would have been worse but for Michal Bilek‘s attempt to fool Tony Meola with a Panenka. It did not work.
The only Panenka that was attempted in a World Cup final was by Zinedine Zidane in 2006 when his shot hit the crossbar and bounced inches across the line for France’s early goal against Italy, which later won in a shootout after Zidane’s red card for head-butting Marco Materazzi.
If you were wondering where Brahim Diaz might have gotten the idea for his disastrous Panenka attempt that cost host Morocco the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations final against Senegal, teammate Achraf Hakimi chipped down the middle for the winning goal in the Lions of Atlas’ 3-0 shootout win over Spain at the 2022 World Cup.
🎥 Watch: World Cup Panenka attempts
🇧🇷 Carlos Alberto Parreira. Never a professional player, Carlos Alberto Parreira studied physical education and served as a fitness coach on the Mario Zagallo-coached 1970 World Cup champion Brazil.
Brazil won its next and fourth World Cup at USA 94, with Parreira as head coach and Zagallo his assistant. Parreira had previously coached Kuwait (1982) and United Arab Emirates (1990), then Saudi Arabia (1998), Brazil (2006) and South Africa (2010) — and is the only man to coach at six World Cups.
In 1997, Parreira failed to take the MetroStars to the MLS playoffs, then left in mid-contract for Saudi Arabia, which fired him during the 1998 World Cup after two losses and ahead of its third group-stage game. His 2006 Brazil team exited in the quarterfinals.
🎥 Watch (👇): The official 1994 World Cup film: Two Billion Hearts
🇺🇸 Bert Patenaude: The first World Cup hat trick was scored by Bert Patenaude, born in Fall River, Massachusetts, in the USA’s 3-0 win over Paraguay at the 1930 World Cup.
The 21-year-old forward had also scored in the opening 3-0 win over Belgium, and his four World Cup goals remained a U.S. record until Landon Donovan scored his fifth, against Ghana at the 2010 World Cup. The two wins sent the USA into the 1930 semifinals against Argentina, which thumped the Americans, 6-1.
Patenaude was inducted into the National Hall of Fame in 1971 and died in Fall River three years later, on his 65th birthday.
• More: 1930 World Cup Flashback
🇧🇷 Pele. Brazil brought a 17-year-old Pele to the 1958 World Cup. At age 9, Pele promised his father he’d help Brazil win a World Cup after seeing him cry following Brazil’s 1950 final loss to Uruguay. Pele scored the lone goal in a 1-0 quarterfinal win over Wales, a hat trick in the semifinal against France, and twice in the 5-2 final win over Sweden.
At 1962 World Cup, Pele pulled a muscle in the second game and missed the rest of the tournament that marked Brazil’s second World Cup win. At the 1966 World Cup, Pele was brutalized by Bulgarian and Portuguese defenders as Brazil exited in the group stage. He vowed afterward not to play for the Seleção again. “The only reason I decided to play in 1970 was because I was in great form with Santos,” he said. “The scars of 66 were still there though.”
At the 1970 World Cup in Brazil Mexico, Pele scored four goals — including Brazil’s first in its 4-1 final win over Italy — set up half a dozen, and won the Golden Ball. He played for the New York Cosmos in 1975-77 and significantly helped popularize soccer in the USA.
• Paul Gardner: Adeus Pele — my 17-year-old mentor (SoccerTalk)
🇨🇱 Augusto Pinochet. Chile’s National Stadium in Santiago, site of the 1962 World Cup final, was used as a concentration camp after Pinochet’s bloody coup of September 1973 in which Marxist president Salvador Allende was killed.
Chile qualified by winning a playoff against the Soviet Union, which refused to play in the stadium. In front of a half-full crowd, the Chileans dribbled down field and shot into an empty net for an official 1-0 win.
Pinochet’s forces held an estimated 20,000 people in the stadium. Official records show 41 people died.
🎥 Watch (👇): Un gol facile facile
🇮🇹Vittorio Pozzo. Born in Turin in 1886, Vittorio Pozzo spent time in England in the early 1900s and became enchanted with soccer. He played for Grasshopper Club Zurich and when he returned to Italy, he helped found Torino FC and coached its early teams.
In 1915, at age 29, Pozzo volunteered to serve in Italy’s World War I elite mountain troops, the 1st Alpini Regiment. “We lived like moles in the snow,” he wrote of the trenches troops dug into the ice-covered Alps while battling Austria-Hungary and German Alpine troops. Pozzo continued leading his platoon despite losing toes to gangrene in 1916.
By the war’s end in 1918, nearly half a million Italian soldiers died. Pozzo had been promoted to captain and was honored with medals. Upon demobilization he coped with PTSD by channeling energy into coaching. Pozzo returned to coaching Italy, which he had led at the 1912 Olympics, for the Italy-hosted 1934 World Cup.
Italy’s 1934 and 1938 World Cup titles sandwiched their soccer gold medal at the 1936 Olympics. Pozzo remains the only coach to win two World Cups.
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🇶🇦 Qatar. The 2022 World Cup marked the first time the tournament was held in the Middle East, as Qatar became the first nation to host a World Cup without having played in a previous World Cup since Italy hosted in 1934.
The nation of 3 million won hosting rights with a secret-ballot vote in 2010 by the 24-member FIFA Executive Committee — over the USA, South Korea, Japan and Australia — despite its being deemed “high operational risk” by FIFA evaluation committee.
Extreme heat required air-conditioned stadiums and moving the tournament from the summer to November-December. Seven of the eight stadiums in five cities — all within a 22-mile radius of the capital Doha — were constructed for the tournament while the Khalifa International Stadium was heavily renovated. Accusations of Qatar exploiting migrant workers was a major controversy heading ahead of the tournament.
The host team exited at the group stage with three losses. FIFA reported a record revenue of $7.5 billion from the 2022 World Cup.
🇬🇧 Queen Elizabeth II. The 1966 World Cup was the first hosted by a nation with a female head of state. Queen Elizabeth II inaugurated the tournament and handed the trophy to England captain Bobby Moore.
But the first country to host a World Cup while led by an elected female head of government — Chancellor Angela Merkel — was Germany in 2006. The second was Brazil, in 2014, with President Dilma Rousseff. The inaugural game of the 2026 World Cup takes place June 11 at Azteca Stadium in Mexico, which elected its first woman as president, Claudia Sheinbaum, in 2024 for a term through 2030.
🎥 Watch (👇): The 1966 World Cup final highlights and trophy ceremony
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🇺🇸 Claudio Reyna. After starring on the U.S. team that made history with a 1-0 win over Brazil at the 1989 U-17 World Cup, Claudio Reyna captained the USA to its best World Cup performance of the modern era: a quarterfinal finish at the 2002 World Cup, where he became the first American named to a FIFA World Cup All-Star Team.
Reyna, who debuted for the USA at age 20, was also on the 1994 World Cup squad and played at the 1998 and 2006 World Cups — and the 1992 and 1996 Olympics. The playmaker appeared in 31 World Cup qualifying games and retired with 112 caps (8 goals, 19 assists).
Reyna spent most of his 1994-2008 club career in Europe — Bayer Leverkusen, Wolfsburg, Glasgow Rangers, Sunderland and Manchester City — before returning to play in MLS with the New York Red Bulls in 2007.
• Father-son: When Gio Reyna debuted for the USA at age 17 in 2020, the Reynas became the sixth father-son duo to play for the USMNT — and the first to log World Cup time when Gio saw 55 minutes of action at the 2022 World Cup. Claudio’s reaction to Gio’s limited minutes, however, sparked what would become a U.S. Soccer scandal.
🇫🇷 Jules Rimet. The Jules Rimet Trophy was named after Frenchman Jules Rimet, FIFA’s third president serving from 1921 to 1954.
As the first three-time World Cup winner, Brazil got to keep the Jules Rimet Trophy after winning the 1970 World Cup.
• More: 1970 World Cup Flashback
🇧🇷 Romario. Coach Carlos Alberto Parreira kicked Romario off the national team after he lashed out about not starting a December 1992 friendly against Germany. But when Brazil needed a result in its final qualifying game for the 1994 World Cup, Parreira called him back. “God sent Romário to the Maracanã,” Parreira said after Romario scored both goals in a 2-0 win over Uruguay that sent the Seleção to the USA 1994.
Parreira used an odd couple pairing upfront of Bebeto with Romario, who announced he wouldn’t sit next to Bebeto on the plane. “We are different people,” Romario said. “Bebeto is a family type, stay at home. I’m a street cat.”
On the field, they combined wonderfully. Romario scored five goals and won the Golden Ball, while Bebeto scored three in Brazil’s first World Cup win since 1970.
🏛 Goal poacher to politician: Romario, whose clubs included PSV and Barcelona, scored 19 goals for Miami FC in the 2006 USL-1 season. He retired in 2007 after a season with Vasco da Gama. Romario entered politics in 2010 and was elected to the Chamber of Deputies on the Brazilian Socialist Party ticket. He is currently a Liberal Party Senior Senator for Rio de Janeiro.
• More: 1994 World Cup Flashback
🇧🇷 Ronaldinho: Brazil’s fifth and most frequent World Cup title came in 2002 when it beat Germany 2-0 in the final.
It won with a front three of Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho.
Ronaldinho Gaúcho was the youngest at the age of 22. Three years later, he won the Ballon d’Or. In 2006, he was part of the Brazil attack with Adriano, Kaká and Ronaldo.
In 2002, Ronaldinho scored the winning goal in 2-1 victory over England in the quarterfinals. The 2006 World Cup was less successful for Ronaldinho and Brazil. He went scoreless and Brazil exited in the quarterfinal with a 1-0 loss to France.
Ronaldinho’s nickname was “O Bruxo” (The Wizard), famed for his dribbling and skills with his feet. They live on dozens of Ronaldinho compilation videos on YouTube that have inspired generations of kids.
• The documentary Ronaldinho: The one and only premieres April 16 on Netflix. (Trailer)
🇧🇷 Ronaldo. An unused sub for Brazil during its 1994 World Cup win, Ronaldo arrived at the 1998 World Cup as the back-to-back FIFA World Player of the Year winner and scored four goals on Brazil’s way to the final. But on the afternoon of the big game, Ronaldo suffered a seizure in his hotel room. He was cleared by doctors to play but performed sluggishly. Coach Mario Zagallo inexplicably kept him on the field the entire 90 minutes as Brazil lost, 3-0, to France.
Ronaldo missed the 2000-01 season and much of the 2001-02 season at Inter Milan with knee injuries, but returned to fitness in time for the 2002 World Cup. He scored a tournament-leading eight goals, two of which came in Brazil’s 2-0 win over Germany in the final.
Ronaldo’s third goal in his final World Cup in 2006 marked his 15th in 19 World Cup games and beat Gerd Mueller’s World Cup all-time scoring record of 14 goals (13 games). Ronaldo’s record was broken in 2014 by Germany’s Miroslav Klose, who holds the record at 16 goals (24 games).
• More: 2002 World Cup Flashback
🇮🇹 Paolo Rossi. Two months before España 1982, the Italian forward returned from a two-year suspension for his part in a game-fixing scandal to lead the Azzurri to their third World Cup championship.
Italy managed to reach the second round without winning a game while scoring only two goals in three ties. It then — aided by the lax refereeing that plagued the tournament – defeated Argentina, 2-1, as Claudio Gentile beat up on Diego Maradona. Rossi then took over …
Rossi scored a hat trick as Azzurri booked a semifinal spot with a 3-2 victory over Brazil, the greatest Seleção – with Zico, Socrates and Falcao – not to lift the title. He scored twice in the semifinal against Poland and then scored again in Italy’s 3-1 win over West Germany in the final.
Few remember that Rossi, then 21, also starred at the 1978 World Cup, taking the Silver Ball as the tournament’s second best player, or that he went to the 1986 World Cup in Mexico only to never play due to fitness issues.
Rossi died in 2020 of lung cancer at the age of 64.
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🇯🇵 Samurai Blue. Japan had been unknown in the soccer world until it won the bronze medal at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico under German coach Dettmar Cramer, whom the U.S. Soccer Federation hired as a consultant to create its coaching education department in the early 1970s.
Japan first qualified for the World Cup 1998, and has qualified for each since. The first of the Samurai Blue’s four round-of-16 appearances came when it co-hosted the 2002 World Cup with South Korea and was knocked out with a 1-0 loss to Turkey.
At 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Japan beat former world champions Germany and Spain before losing a round-of-16 shootout to Croatia.
🎥 Watch (👇): Japan’s 2022 comeback win over Germany (highlights)
• Asian milestones: Japan became the first Asian team to beat a South American foe at a World Cup with a win over Colombia in 2018. The only Asian team more successful than Japan at the men’s World Cup is South Korea, which has made 12 appearances and finished fourth in 2002.
🇭🇹 Emmanuel Sanon: Haiti stunned Mexico to represent Concacaf at the 1974 World Cup in Germany, where it had the almost impossible task of facing Italy, Poland and Argentina.
But Emmanuel Sanon scored on a breakaway to give Haiti a 1-0 lead in the 47th minute of its opening game against Italy, the runner-up four years earlier. The Azzurri recovered to win 3-1, but Sanon’s goal made him a national hero in Haiti.
🎥 Watch (👇): Emmanuel Sanon give Italy a scare
The Haitians quickly exited, losing to Poland 7-0 and Argentina 4-1. But Sanon, who also scored against the Argentines, earned a contract with Beerschot in Belgium, where he spent six seasons before moving to the United States in 1980.
Sanon played for Ron Newman on the American Soccer League’s Miami Americans and moved with Newman to the San Diego Sockers, where he played three seasons in the NASL.
Sanon then embarked on a long coaching career, working in California, Texas and Florida, where he died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 56 in 2008.
🇩🇪 Helmut Schön. He was known as the “general with a heart,” “the man with the cap,” and the architect of modern German soccer. Helmut Schön coached at four World Cups and holds the World Cup coaching record for most games (25) and most games won (16).
The 1974 World Cup title he guided West Germany to came on home soil. It was runner-up to host England in 1966 and finished in third place in Mexico in 1970. Schön’s final World Cup came in 1978 when West Germany went winless in its second-round group.
Born in 1921 in Dresden, he and his family survived the infamous February 1945 World War II bombing of the city. Schön worked at the Saxon State Bank before starring for Dresdner SC and German national team.
A SG Dresden-Friedrichstadt player-coach after the war, Schön fled East Germany in 1950 and served as Sepp Herberger’s assistant coach from 1956 until succeeding Herberger in 1964. Schön died in 1996 at age 80.
🇪🇸 Seville. Spain spread the 52 games out in 13 cities, including the Andalusian capital of Seville, the site of the highly dramatic and controversial France-West Germany semifinal.
The Michel Platini-led French played such entertaining soccer they were hailed as the Brazilians of Europe. But on what became known as “The Night of Seville,” the Germans took the lead through Pierre Littbarski before Platini equalized. Ten minutes into the second half, German goalkeeper Toni Schumacher charged out of his goal and flattened Patrick Battiston. German forward Karl-Heinz Rummenigge would later say, “I thought he was dead.” Battiston was stretchered off the field, but Dutch ref Charles Corver didn’t even call a foul.
🎥 Watch (👇): West Germany-France (highlights)
The French went up 3-1 in overtime but the Germans tied it with up within eight minutes of the final whistle to force the first penalty-kick shootout in World Cup history. The Germans prevailed — thanks to two saves by Schumacher, the man who should have been red-carded.
🇺🇸 Silverdome (1994). Some soccer purists around the world objected to a World Cup in a country without a great soccer history — a nation that didn’t even have a national pro league. U.S. media, on the other hand, wrote much about the violent soccer fans they expected. But it was a peaceful, friendly festival.
More than 3.5 million attended the 52 games — 1 million more than the previous best-attended World Cup and still a record today, even though the last seven World Cups had 64 games. The host USA played its first game, a 1-1 tie over Switzerland, at the Pontiac Silverdome, on natural grass crated in for the first World Cup game played in an indoor stadium.
“The crowd of 73,425 fans sweltered in one-hundred-degree temperatures and more than 80-percent humidity,” recalled Roger N. Faulkner, who spearheaded Detroit’s bid. “It was like playing in a hot dog stand,” said Switzerland’s coach Roy Hodgson.
• More: ‘You Can’t Get There from Here’: The story of the USA’s World Cup 1994 opener indoors and, after 44 years, a point! By Roger N. Faulkner
🇩🇪 Sommermaerchen. Host Germany did not win the 2006 World Cup, but its third-place finish was celebrated as if it had won it all.
The German national team hit a nadir when eliminated in the first round of Euro 2004. Jurgen Klinsmann, who won the 1990 World Cup as a player with West Germany and was living in California, was brought in as head coach despite having never coached.
Germany won fans over by playing attack-minded soccer and finishing as the highest-scoring team of the tournament. Its run was depicted in the documentary, “Sommermaerchen” (“Summer Fairytale”).
The welcoming atmosphere during the 2006 World Cup, characterized by big crowds of flag-waving and fun-loving fans and sunny weather, was credited with changing Germany’s image.
🎥 Watch (👇): ‘Sommermaerchen’
Milutin Soskic. Yugoslavia’s starting keeper at the 1962 World Cup conceded only one goal in four games on the way to the semifinals, where Yugoslavia fell, 3-1, to Czechoslovakia before finishing fourth.
“Two of our best players were afraid to fly, so they did not come,” Soskic said. “Maybe with them, we could have won it.”
In 1993, Soskic joined the USMNT as its goalkeeper coach under countryman Bora Milutinovic.
He went on to coach U.S. keepers under Milutinovic, Steve Sampson and Bruce Arena at the 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2006 World Cups. Among the keepers he worked with were future Hall of Famers Tony Meola, Brad Friedel, Kasey Keller and Tim Howard.
Soskic died in 2022 at the age of 84 in Belgrade.
• More: 1962 World Cup Flashback
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🇫🇷 Lilian Thuram. At the 1998 World Cup, Lilian Thuram played right back on host France’s backline with Laurent Blanc, Marcel Desailly and Bixente Lizarazu. One of only two goals France conceded in its seven games was scored by Davor Šuker in the semifinals. Croatia had caught Thuram out of position and took a 46th-minute lead.
One minute later, Thuram stormed upfield and equalized with his first career goal for France. He scored his second in the 70th minute for a 2-1 France win. The French beat Brazil, 3-0, to win their first World Cup and Thuram won the Bronze Ball. Thuram, who finished runner-up with France in 2006, retired with a French record 142 goals — and two goals.
🎥 Watch (👇): Lilian Thuram become a national hero
Lilian’s oldest son, Marcus Thuram, was born a year before the 1998 World Cup final. He assisted on Kylian Mbappé‘s second goal in the 2022 World Cup final, which Argentina won ion PKs after a 3-3 tie. Khéphren Thuram, who is four years younger than Marcus, debuted for France in 2023 and played in three of France’s last four 2026 World Cup qualifiers.
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🇩🇪 “Uns Uwe.” At the 1970 World Cup, West German center forward Uwe Seeler became the first field player to play at four World Cups. He also became the first to score at least two goals at four tournaments, a feat matched only by Miroslav Kloese (2002-2014). The stocky 5-foot-6 Seeler was nicknamed “Der Dicke” (fatty) early in his career and became known as Uns Uwe (Our Uwe) — for his down-to-earth, man-of-the-people personality.
🎥 Watch (👇): Uwe Seeler stun England
Seeler, who spent his entire career at Hamburg SV, captained West Germany in its runner-up finish to host England at the 1966 World Cup. At the 1970 World Cup, he famously scored against England goalkeeper Peter Bonetti with a backward header — the 2-2 equalizer as the Germans overcame a two-goal deficit to win the quarterfinal, 3-2, in overtime.
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• VAR: Video Review made its World Cup debut in Russia, just one year after its roll out in major leagues across the world.
Over 64 games at the 2018 World Cup, 21 calls were reviewed, 17 of which overturned the ref’s call on the field.
Among the possible effects: 29 penalty kicks were called, 16 more than at the 2014 World Cup. Eight were called by the VAR after the referee didn’t whistle them. (Although the VAR ignored what should have been a penalty kick for Brazil in its loss to Belgium.) Two goals were awarded after being wrongly disallowed for offside.
Some speculated the low number of red cards — only four, compared to 10 in 2014; 17 in 2010 — to the VAR serving as a deterrence to players who otherwise thought they could get away with a transgression outside the human officials’ views.
🇧🇷 Vava. Brazil beat Czechoslovakia, 3-1, in the 1962 World Cup final to join Uruguay and Italy as two-time champions. Edvaldo Isidio “Vava” Neto, who scored Brazil’s final goal against the Czechs, had scored twice in the 1958 World Cup final victory over Sweden.
🎥 Watch (👇): 1962 World Cup final (highlights)
Vava is, along with Pele, Paul Breitner, Zinedine Zidane and Kylian Mbappé, one of five men to score in two World Cup finals.
Vava left Vasco da Gama after the 1958 World Cup for Atlético Madrid and returned to Brazil to play for Palmeiras before the 1962 World Cup. In 1968, he played a season in the NASL with the San Diego Toros at age 33 and scored five goals in 28 games.
🇿🇦 Vuvuzelas. Dedicating 40,000 police to World Cup security at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa ensured a relatively trouble-free tournament in the crime-ridden nation but the din from vuvuzela horns drew universal complaints.
A study in the South African Medical Journal said fans subjected to the vuvuzela swarm were exposed to a deafening peak of more than 140 decibels, equivalent to standing near a jet engine.
In response, FIFA president Sepp Blatter said, “It’s a local sound, and I don’t know how it is possible to stop it. I always said that when we go to South Africa, it is Africa. It’s not Western Europe. It’s noisy, it’s energy, rhythm, music, dance, drums.”
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🏴 World Cup Willy. The nation that wrote the rules to the game 103 years earlier finally hosted the 1966 World Cup. And England created the first World Cup mascot — the soccer-playing lion World Cup Willy, the first in a long line of marketable World Cup icons.
• More: 1966 World Cup Flashback
🇦🇹 Wunderteam: Austria’s “Wunderteam” was Europe’s top team in the early 1930s, producing such stars as Matthias Sindelar, Josef Bican, Anton Schall, Josef Smistik and Walter Nausch.
It finished fourth at the 1934 World Cup, losing controversially to host Italy 1-0 in the semifinals and Germany 3-2 for third place.
Austria had qualified for the 1938 World Cup in France, beating Latvia in a single match played in October 1937. By the spring of 1938, though, the specter of World War II was emerging, and Nazi Germany’s annexation (Anschluss) of Austria resulted in the talented Austrian national team being disbanded.
One last game was played on April 3, 1938, and Austria beat Germany 2-0 before 60,000 fans at the Praterstadion in Vienna. The game was known as the “Anschlussspiel” or “annexation game.”
For the World Cup two months later, Germany coach Sepp Herberger picked nine Austrians. (Sindelar refused to play for Germany.)
The Germans’ ploy quickly failed as they were eliminated by Switzerland in the first round, losing 4-2 in a replay after leading 2-0 after 22 minutes at the Parc des Princes. Herberger blamed the loss on the five Austrians he started.
On Jan. 23, 1939, Sindelar and his girlfriend, Camilla Castagnola, were found in his Vienna apartment. The cause of death remains the subject of intense speculation.
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🇪🇸 Xavi. The 5-foot-7 midfield maestro was key to Spain winning the 2010 World Cup and the 2008 and 2012 European Championships. In South Africa, he led the World Cup in accurate passes and balls into the penalty area. He set up the gamewinners in Spain’s semifinal win over Germany and round of 16 win over Portugal.
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☭ Lev Yashin. The only goalkeeper to ever win the Ballon d’Or, 1963 winner Lev Yashin played for the Soviet Union at four World Cups (1954, 1958, 1962 and 1966). His acrobatic goalkeeping in dark shorts and jersey earned him the nickname “the Black Spider.”
When Eladio Rojas of host Chile scored against Yashin in the 1962 World Cup quarterfinals, he hugged Yashin: “I was in disbelief that I’d scored past the great Lev Yashin,” he said years later. “I still am. I was overcome with excitement that all I wanted to do was hug him. Scoring past Yashin was like a trophy.”
Yashin played his entire career for Dynamo Moscow and after hanging up his gloves held various positions with the club for two decades. He died of stomach cancer in 1990 and was given a state funeral.
France Football added the Lev Yashin Award for the best goalkeeper to its Ballon d’Or ceremonies in 2019.
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🇧🇷 Mario Zagalo. After winning the 1958 and 1962 World Cups as a player with Brazil, at the 1970 World Cup he became the first man to lift the World Cup as a player and coach. He coached Brazil again at the 1998 World Cup after assisting Carlos Alberto Parreira with Brazil’s 1994 World Cup-winning team.
• Trivia: The two other World Cup winners as players and head coaches: German Franz Beckenbauer (1974 and 1990) and Frenchman Didier Deschamps (1998 and 2018).
🇫🇷 Zinedine Zidane. France hosted the 1998 World Cup after failing to qualify in 1990 and 1994. Jean-Marie Le Pen, head of France’s right-wing National Front party, mocked “Les Bleus” as “artificial” because so many of its players had foreign heritage.
Playmaker Zinedine Zidane, the son of Algerian immigrants, was red-carded in France’s second game for stomping on Saudi Arabia’s Fuad Anwar. He returned from a two-game suspension to help France overcome Italy and Croatia to reach the final against Brazil. Zidane, with two first-half headers, led France to a 3-0 win and its first World Cup title.
Eight years later, at the 2006 World Cup in Germany, Zidane played a tremendous knockout stage, with two goals and two assists as France dispatched of Spain, Brazil and Portugal. He gave France a 1-0 lead from the penalty spot in the final against Italy, which equalized, 1-1, on a Marco Materazzi header. Zidane was red-carded for head-butting Materazzi with 10 minutes left in overtime, and the Italians won the shooutout.
🇮🇹 Dino Zoff. The 1982 World Cup marked the fourth straight for Italian goalkeeper Dino Zoff, who was a back up in 1970 and a starter for the next three tournaments.
Italy in 1982 World Cup final (l-r) Dino Zoff (captain), Francesco Graziani, Bruno Conti, Fulvio Collovati, Gaetano Scirea, Claudio Gentile, Giuseppe Bergomi, Paolo Rossi, Gabriele Oriali, Antonio Cabrini, Marco Tardelli. (Photo: Peter Robinson/PA Images/Alamy)
At Spain ’82, Zoff, at 40 years and 133 days old, became the oldest player to win a World Cup as Italy joined Brazil as three-time winners.
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