HAYA NI MAMBO 21 USIYOYAFAHAMU KUHUSU KOMBE LA DUNIA

1. The tournament has been held 18 times
since 1930, however, only seven different
nations have lifted the trophy.
2. No country from outside South America or
Europe has ever won the World Cup.
3. Five-time champions Brazil are the only
World Cup winners who have not won the title
on home soil.
4. Oliver Kahn of Germany is the only
goalkeeper to have won the Golden Ball (best
player at the tournament) trophy.
5. During the inter-war years, Italian football
Chief Ottorino Barassi secretly took the Jules
Rimet trophy home from a bank in Rome and
kept it under his bed in a shoebox to ensure
Hitler and his Nazi troops didn’t find it. There it
stayed until the 1950 World Cup.
6. The largest crowd for a World Cup match
was in the 1950 final between hosts Brazil and
Uruguay, when 199,954 people filed into the
Maracana in Rio de Janeiro (the host venue of
this year’s final). Uruguay won the match 2-1.
7. Korea Republic became the best performing
Asian nation when it reached the 2002 semi-
finals on home soil.
8. Australia will be the lowest-ranked nation at
this year’s tournament – the Socceroos
currently sit at 59 on FIFA’s world rankings.
9. Tim Cahill is the only Australian player in the
current squad to have scored a World Cup goal.
10. In 2010, New Zealand finished the
tournament as the only undefeated side after
drawing all of its matches. Eventual winners
Spain suffered a shock 1-0 defeat to
Switzerland in the group stage.
11. In 2002, France became the worst ever
defending champions when they were
eliminated in the group stages without scoring
a goal.
12. In 1994, 42-year-old Roger Milla from
Cameroon became both the oldest goal-scorer
and oldest player in World Cup history.
13. Sir Viv Richards is the only person to have
played in both the FIFA World Cup and the ICC
World Cup (cricket).
14. Diego Maradona knocked England out of the
1986 tournament when he punched the ball into
the goal. Maradona famously said it was “the
hand of God”.
15. Brazil hosted one of the most unique
editions of the World Cup in 1950 as it was the
only tournament in which the winner was
determined by a final group stage, with the final
four teams playing in a round-robin format,
instead of a knockout stage.
16. During a time dominated by the iconic
Brazilian Pele, Just Fontaine won the Golden
boot at the 1958 World Cup in Sweden by
scoring a total of 13 goals in the tournament.
The French striker scored 13 in just six
matches - the highest number of goals ever
scored by one player at a single World Cup
tournament.
17. Italy's triumph in 1934 is said to be
influenced by military leaders seeking
propaganda coups. At the time, fascist dictator
Mussolini was in power in Italy. Mussolini
decided  to have dinner with just the referee
and linesman instead of the usual dinner
involving players and staff members from both
teams on the night before the final. Italy came
out victorious as they defeated Czechoslovakia
2-1.
18. Italy has always been a major contender to
lift the trophy in every tournament they have
featured in, but while they won back to back
World Cups in 1934 and 1938, the Italians had
to wait 44 years for their third title.
19. Which player has scored the most goals in
a single World Cup match? No, it isn't Pele,
Maradona, Gerd Muller or Ronaldo. Oleg
Salenko, who represented Russia at the 1994
World Cup finals in USA, scored 5 goals against
Cameroon which stands as the record for the
most goals by an individual in a World Cup
game.
20.  Hungary beat El Salvador 10-1 on June
15,1982 in Elche, Spain, thus recording the
biggest scoreline in the tournament finals.
21.  A crowd search by police before 1930’s
World Cup final in Uruguay led to the
confiscation of 1,600 revolvers.