Almost every World Cup season see's a new record broken, a new record set, or dramatic occurrences that are everlasting in people's memories.
The ILoveQatar.net (ILQ) team is here with 15 interesting facts from World Cup history that turned heads or broke the news at their time.
The World Cup final officially recorded 173,850 spectators. However, some speculate that this number isn't accurate and believe approximately 199,854 to 200,000 people were crammed in the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro.
This match was also notorious for being a match that caused many Brazilian fans to suicide as their team lost the game.
Pelé won his first World Cup in 1958 in Sweden, Brazil's first-ever win.
He then helped Brazil win in the next tournament in 1962 and finally took his team to the winning podium in 1970, which was also his final match.
Miroslav Klose has a record of 16 goals which even surpasses Ronaldo's record. He scored five goals in his debut season in 2002 and then five goals again in the 2006 tournament, for which he won the Golden Boot.
He later scored 4 goals in 2010 and 2 goals in the 2014 season.
France's Just Fontaine scored 13 goals during the 1958 tournament in Sweden, the most goals ever scored in one tournament by one player.
The whopping number made records as almost half the world's population watched the matches. The number includes people who watched the matches on TV at home, out of home or on digital platforms.
Uruguay enjoyed being the first host country but also ended up being the first ever World Cup champions.
Initially, South Korea & Japan had both individually bid to host the championship. Japan then went on to reject the idea of co-hosting.
However, they changed their mind and executed what FIFA claimed to be a pivotal decision to indicate how sport can defeat any differences.
Essam El Hadary, Egypt's goalkeeper, played at the 2018 World Cup in Russia at 45.
The tournament also gave him the title of being the oldest player to have saved a penalty when he successfully stopped a penalty shot from Saudi Arabia.
Turkish player Hakan Sukur kicked off the first goal 10.89 seconds into the match, playing against South Korea as part of the third-place play-offs.
Ahead of the 1966 tournament that was taking place in England, the trophy was on display at the Methodist Central Hall in Westminster.
A thief mysteriously evaded security and escaped with the trophy. It was later found under a bush in a residential area by a dog named Pickles.
Mexico has lost a total of 25 matches since the tournament's inception.
The Italian team took home the World Cup trophy in 1934 and 1938, and the Brazilian team won the title in 1958 and 1962.
Argentina and Germany have played against each other more than any other country. They faced each other in the finals of 1986, 1990, and 2014.
The Asian team made their World Cup debut at the 1938 tournament under the Dutch East Indies' name. They played against Hungary where they lost with a score of 6-0.
Stadium 974 built out of shipping containers, will go on to be completely dismantled once the tournament ends. The objective of the dismantleable stadium is to contribute to overall waste reduction in stadium construction and components production.
Sources: Goal.com / World Soccer Talk / Hypercritic / Facts.net / HITC / Guiness World Records / History of Soccer / FIFA / The Fact Site / kidadl / The Daily Star / Londonist / The New York Times / Qatar 2022
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