There’s nothing like a bit of trivia to test your knowledge of the sport of soccer. You may say that soccer is your favorite sport, but how much do you really know? The following are some facts and tidbits you may or may not know about soccer.
· Soccer generally originated in its present form in Great Britain.
The oldest club in the world formed in 1857 is Sheffield FC
Soccer is the most played and most watched sport on Earth
· Football is called football in virtually all countries except the United States, which calls it ‘Grid Iron’ football and soccer.
Famous football rivalries include the Old Firm (Scotland), Manchester Derby, London Derbies, Milan Derby, Real vs Barcelona and many more.
· Some famous footballers: Pelé, Maradonna, Charlton, Eusebio, Cruyff, Dalglish, Ronaldo, Beckham, Mattheus.
Those are some basic bits of soccer related trivia and facts. How much did you know? Well, here are some more soccer facts to test your knowledge:
The sport of association football (often referred to as soccer or simply soccer) is the most popular team sport in the world, both in number of spectators and in number of active participants.
The largest attendance at a soccer match in history was 199,854 people: Brazil v. Uruguay in the World Cup at the Maracana Municipal Stadium, Rio de Janeiro, July 1950.
· In the biggest soccer tournament of all time, no less than 5,098 teams competed in 1999 in the second Bangkok League Seven-a-Side Competition. More than 35,000 players involved!
The most goals scored by a player in a single soccer match was 16
– Stephan Stanis (France) playing for Racing Club de Lens in December 1942.
· Based on video evidence, one of the fastest ever recorded was in 2.8 seconds by Ricardo Olivera (Uruguay) in December 1998.
The international governing body for soccer is the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), based in Zurich, Switzerland.
Diego Maradona was just 16 years old when he made his soccer debut for Argentina.
· Soccer goalkeepers did not have to wear different colored jerseys from their teammates until 1913.
· Eusebio scored 46 goals in the European Cup with Benfica.
· Chris Woods once went 1,196 minutes without conceding a goal for Rangers, between 26 November 1986 and 31 January 1987.
Ryan Giggs’s father was a professional Rugby League player.
· In 1973, the entire Galilee team spent the night in jail for kicking their opponents during an Israeli league game.
Have you had enough facts and curiosities about soccer? These are just some of the interesting football facts out there.
