Surprising and Interesting Individual Facts of FIFA World Cup

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Do you want to know some interesting individual facts about the FIFA World Cup?

So, this article is for you. It is going to cover all the major individual facts that you need to know. Some of the facts that are going to amaze you are enlisted as follows:

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• Lothar Matthaeus of Germany has the most World Cup appearances with 25 games.
• In 1930, Frenchman Lucien Laurent scored the inaugural goal in the World Cup.
• The only player to score a hat-trick in a championship game was Geoff Hurst of England in 1966 against West Germany.
• The only coach to have twice won the competition is Italian Vittorio Pozzo, who did so in 1934 and 1938.
• The oldest player to tally a hat-trick at a World Cup is Sweden’s Tore Keller. He accomplished this record in a match against Cuba in the 1938 edition when he was 33 years old.
• The only player to have competed for several nations at various World Cups is Luis Monti. In 1930 he represented Argentina, and in 1934 Italy.
• Only Bora Milutinovic has led Mexico, Costa Rica, the United States, China, and Nigeria in five different World Cup tournaments.
• The record for the most goals scored in a single game belongs to Oleg Salenko of Russia, who scored five goals against Cameroon in 1994.
• The player with the most goals in a single tournament was Fontaine of France. He discovered the net 13 times in the 1958 edition. Ironically, he only participated in that World Cup.
• Only two people—Franz Germany’s Beckenbauer and Brazil’s Mário Zagallo—have won the World Cup both as a player and a coach.
• Turkey’s Hakan Sükür set the record for the quickest goal in the 2002 tournament when he scored 11 seconds into a match against South Korea.
• When the USA’s Tony Meola led his side in a 1990 World Cup match, he was only 21 years old.
• Gianluca Pagliuca of Italy was the first goalie to ever be kicked out of a tournament when he did so in a match against Norway at the 1994 edition played in the United States.
• The first yellow card was displayed in the 1970 edition when Soviet Union player Kakhi Asatiani was cautioned during a match against Mexico.
• Pelé of Brazil is the player with the youngest World Cup goal total. At the 1958 competition, when he was just 17 years old, he recorded his first goal.
• Roger Milla of Cameroon is the oldest player to ever score a goal in a World Cup. When he made a point in the 1994 competition, he was 42 years and 39 days old.
• The first replacement in the World Cup occurred during a match between Mexico and the Soviet Union. The USSR’s Viktor Serebryanikov was replaced in the game’s 46th minute.
• Juan Jose Tramutola of Argentina served as the World Cup’s youngest head coach. When he led Argentina in the 1930 competition, he was 27 years old.
• Oliver Kahn is the only goalkeeper to have ever taken home the “Golden Ball” trophy.
• Miroslav Klose of Germany has 16 goals to his credit in World Cups.
• With 15 goals to his name, Brazilian Ronaldo is currently ranked second among all-time goal scorers.
• The only player to record hat-tricks in two different World Cup competitions is Argentina’s Gabriel Batistuta.

These are some of the most amazing facts which we have covered in this article. Hope you enjoy reading it and get surprised by the collection of facts that we have put here. Individual facts are all about the players individually, their achievements and the extraordinary things that they have done over time. Keep reading to know more about the amazing collection of facts that we have gathered about FIFA World Cup and its players. 

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