World Cup Trivia
Most games in World Cup
25 Matthäus Lothar GER 2058 mins.
21 Seeler Uwe GER 1980
Maradona Diego ARG 1933
¯muda W³adys³aw POL 1807
20 Lato Grzegorz POL 1800
19 Maldini Paolo ITA 1830
Vogts Hans Hubert GER 1770
Overath Wolfgang GER 1761
Rummenige K.H. GER 1275
18 Taffarel Claudio BRA 1680
Dunga BRA 1679
Beckenbauer Franz GER 1671
Maier Sepp GER 1650
Scirea Gaetano ITA 1620
Cabrini Antonio ITA 1608
Berthold Thomas GER 1584
Kempes Mario ARG 1400
Littbarski Pierre GER 1167
As you can count, only Maldini, Taffarel, Lato and Seeler played all their
matches full time, never being substituted. Of those, Taffarel played also
two extra times. Maldini and Seeler played three. ¯muda played 20 matches
full time + 7 minutes of this 21st match (to equalize the record, of course
:-). Dunga played 19 matches full time, as did Beckenbauer
Also at France '98 Scifo and Klinsmann reached 17 games. Roberto Baggio and
Zubizaretta reached 16 games.
Most goals in World Cup
14 Müller Gerd GER (70,74)
13 Fontaine Just FRA (58)
12 Pelé BRA (58,62,66,70)
11 Kocsis Sándor HUN (54)
Klinsmann Jürgen GER (90,94,98)
10 Rahn Helmut GER (54,58)
Cubillas Teofilo PER (70,78)
Lato Grzegorz POL (74,78,82)
Lineker Gary ENG (86,90)
9 Vavá BRA (58,62)
Eusébio POR (66)
Jairzinho BRA (66,70)
Seeler Uwe GER (58,62,66,70)
Rossi Paolo ITA (78,82,86)
Rummenige K.H. GER (78,82,86)
Baggio Roberto ITA (90,94,98)
Batistuta GabrielARG (94,98)
8 Stábile Guilermo ARG (30)
Leônidas BRA (34,38)
Míguez Oscar URU (50,54)
Maradona Diego ARG (82,86,90,94)
Völler Rudi GER (86,90,94)
7 Ademir BRA (50)
Schäfer Hans GER (54,58)
Tichy Lajos HUN (58,62)
Rep Johny HOL (74,78)
Szarmach Andrzej POL (74,78,82)
Careca BRA (86,90)
6 Nejedlý Oldøich CZE (34,38)
Sarosi Gyula HUN (34,38)
Probst Erich AUT (54)
Morlock Max GER (54)
Hügl Josef SUI (54)
Haller Helmut GER (66)
Rivelino BRA (70,74)
Rensenbrink Rob HOL (74,78)
Kempes Mario ARG (78,82)
Boniek Zbigniew POL (78,82,86)
Schillaci Toto ITA (90)
Salenkov Oleg RUS (94)
Stoichkov Hristo BUL (94)
Bergkamp Dennis HOL (94,98)
©uker Davor CRO (98)
World Cup matches - summary
There have been 3158 games in WC qualifications and 580 in WC finals. 61
required extra time, but two of these were decided by golden goals.
Nine were interrupted before the regular 90 minutes (none in the finals,
though). One match of the finals was cancelled (SWE-AUT in 1938) and is not
counted in the table below.
Columns mean: year, games+extra times, playoffs, penalty shootouts, matches
played on neutral ground (not neccessarily playoffs), matches interrupted,
winner decided by lot, walkovers awarded or result otherwise changed.
year games+ET playoffs pens neutral venues interrupted lot walkovers &c.
1930 18 -------- ---- -------------- ----------- --- -----------
1934q 26 -------- ---- 1 ----------- --- 1
1934f 17+3 1 ---- -------------- ----------- --- -----------
1938q 22 -------- ---- -------------- ----------- --- -----------
1938f 18+6 3 ---- -------------- ----------- --- -----------
1950q 26 1 ---- 3 ----------- --- -----------
1950f 22 -------- ---- -------------- ----------- --- -----------
1954q 57+1 1 ---- 1 ----------- 1 -----------
1954f 26+3 2 ---- -------------- ----------- --- -----------
1958q 89+1 2 ---- 2 1 --- -----------
1958f 35+1 3 ---- -------------- ----------- --- -----------
1962q 91+2 5 ---- 5 ----------- 1 -----------
1962f 32 -------- ---- -------------- ----------- --- -----------
1966q 127 3 ---- 5 ----------- --- -----------
1966f 32+1 -------- ---- -------------- ----------- --- -----------
1970q 173+4 6 ---- 10 1 1 1
1970f 32+3 -------- ---- -------------- ----------- --- -----------
1974q 224+2 6 ---- 39 1 --- 1
1974f 38 -------- ---- -------------- ----------- --- -----------
1978q 251+4 5 1 32 1 --- 1
1978f 38+1 -------- ---- -------------- ----------- --- -----------
1982q 305+2 1 3 28 1 --- -----------
1982f 52+1 -------- 1 -------------- ----------- --- -----------
1986q 312+2 2 ---- 7 ----------- --- 4
1986f 52+5 -------- 3 -------------- ----------- --- -----------
1990q 314+1 -------- ---- 27 2 --- 2
1990f 52+8 -------- 4 -------------- ----------- --- -----------
1994q 498+1 -------- 1 78 1 --- 7
1994f 52+5 -------- 4 -------------- ----------- --- -----------
1998q 643+1 -------- ---- 42 1 --- -----------
1998f 64+4 -------- 3 -------------- ----------- --- -----------
World Cup goals - summary
year goals pens+missed free k. headers own goals average scorers
1930 70 1+3 1 6 2 3,89 35
1934 70 1+1 1 4 0 4,12 46
1938 84 3+1 0 7 2 4,67 40
1950 88 3+1 1 6 1 4,00 46
1954 150 7+2 3 16 4 5,30 59
1958 126 7+2 2 6 0 3,60 59
1962 89 8+1 3 13 0 2,78 54
1966 89 8 2 13 2 2,78 45
1970 95 5 7 12 1 2,97 54
1974 97 6+2 3 15 4 2,55 49
1978 103 12+2 3 12 3 2,68 60
1982 146 8+2 7 21 1 2,81 99
1986 132 12+4 2 19 1 2,54 80
1990 113 13+5 4 28 0 2,31 75
1994 141 15 5 21 1 2,71 80
1998 171 17+1 5 31 4 2,67 108
In total: 1755 goals, 126 from penalties (+27 penalties missed or saved*),
49 from free kicks, 230 with headers. 25 goals were headed into the net
of the unfortunate scorer.
See below for more info about each type of goals.
*one goal scored from rebound after a saved penalty. Penalty shoot-outs not
included
Hat-tricks
There were 45* occasions in WC history when three or more goals have been
scored by the same player. 42 players achieved this (three players -
Kocsis, Fontaine and Gerd Müller - did it twice). Kocsis and Fontaine also
recorded an unusual 3+4 goal distributon, during one tournament!
The fastest hat-trick was the work of Kiss in 1982 (7 minutes). On the
other hand, Hurst needed as much as 102 minutes to score three goals in the
1966 final. The younger hat-trick scorer was Pelé (1958), the oldest
Cubillas (1978).
Gerd Müller achieved an unusual hat-trick. In the 1970 GER-BUL game he scored
in three different ways: kicking, with a header and from a penalty. Note
that in the recent WC Brasil's César Sampaio was actually very close to copying
this feat when Brasil was leading 2:0 with Chile after Sampaio's two goals
(kick and header) and a penalty was ordered. Unfortunately for trivia catchers
the player designated to convert the penalty was Ronaldo.
Other players to score four goals in a WC match were:
Ernest Wilimowski (1938, BRA-POL) - 65 minutes (including extra time)
Ademir (1950, BRA-SWE) - 42 minutes
Sándor Kocsis (1954, HUN-GER) - 75 minutes
Just Fontaine (1958, FRA-GER) - 73 minutes
Eusébio (1966, POR-KLD) - 32 minutes (least)
Emilio Butragueño (1986, ESP-DAN) - 57 minutes
The only player ever to score five goals in a WC match was Oleg
Salenko in the 1994 game between Russia and Cameroon. It took him 59 minutes.
*46 if we recognize Patenaude's disputed hat-trick in the 1930 USA-PAR game.
Jubilee WC goals
year scorer on match
-------------------------------
100 Schiavio 5:1 ITA-USA 7:1 (1934)
200 Zsengeller 2:0 HUN-SUI 2:0 (1938)
300 Chico 4:0 BRA-ESP 6:1 (1950)
400 Morlock 6:1 GER-TUR 7:2 (1954)
500 Collins 3:2 PAR-SCO 3:2 (1958)
600 Jerkoviæ 3:1 JUG-URU 3:1 (1962)
700 P Seung-zin 1:1 KLD-CHI 1:1 (1966)
800 G. Müller 5:1 GER-BUL 5:2 (1970)
900 Yazalde 1:0 ARG-HAI 4:1 (1974)
1000 Rensenbrink 0:1 SCO-HOL 3:2 (1978)
1100 Baltacha 3:0 ZSR-NZL 3:0 (1982)
1200 Papin 1:0 FRA-CAN 1:0 (1986)
1300 Lineker 3:0 ENG-PAR 3:0 (1986)
1400 Ekström 0:1 COS-SWE 2:1 (1990)
1500 Caniggia 1:1 ARG-NGA 2:1 (1994)
1600 Issa 2:0 FRA-SAF 3:0 (1998) *
1700 Komljenoviæ 1:0 JUG-USA 1:0 (1998)
* an own goal
More on WC goals
Penalties
The referees dictated 153 penalties in WC finals (4 penalties were repeated).
Most goals from penalties: 4 - Neeskens and Batistuta, 3 - Eusébio,
Rensenbrink and Stoichkov, 2 - F.Walter, Flowers, Corbatta, Kopa, Cubillas,
Panenka, Passarella, Belanov, J.Olsen, Bilek, Lineker, Matthäus, R.Baggio.
Batistuta, Kopa, Passarella and Matthäus scored in two tournaments.
Free kicks
Scoring directly from a free kick is relatively rare at WC finals level. Up to
now 49 goals were scored this way by 44 players. Only Pelé, Cubillas, Rivelino
and Genghini performed this feat twice.
Header goals
230 goals were scored this way, with most (4 goals) by Kocsis, G.Müller,
Szarmach and Skuhravý, 3 by Váva, Augusto, Rossi and Bierhoff.
Own goals
There were 25 own goals in WC history. No player has ever scored an own
goal twice, although M.Rojas (1930), Peña (1970), Krol (1974),
Brandts (1978) and Mihajloviæ (1998) scored into the proper net as well.
Brandts is the only one who did it in one match (HOL-ITA in 1978).
Sendings-off
95 players were sent off in WC history: 23 until 1970, when the red card
was introduced, and 72 since 1974 (in 1970 no red cards were shown). The
recent France'98 WC holds the record with 22 players being forced to get off
the field, and with the first player (Song from Cameroon) to be shown the red
card twice in two consecutive finals.
The first player sent-off was the Peruvian Gallego in 1930, being the first
captain to be punished as well. Other expulsed captains include Bozsik in
1954, Rattin and Troche in 1966, Bessonov and Ricardo Rocha in 1990, Thern
and Echeverry in 1994. Two or more players have been sent off in 12 matches,
including three matches that saw three players expulsed (BRA-CZE in 1938,
BRA-HUN in 1954, DAN-SAF in 1998).
South American nations top the list in numbers of players expulsed:
Brazil had 8, as well as Argentina, and Uruguay 5. Other countries
high on this list are Cameroon (6); Hungary, Germany, Mexico (5);
Czechoslovakia, Italy (4); Denmark, Holland, France (3).