World Cup Soccer records: A look back into history
Although every four years, the best teams in the world gather to play each other for the coveted World Cup Trophy, but only a few leave a mark with their brilliance that at times leads them to the FIFA World Cup Title as well. A look at such individual and team records will bring forward the best of the best, amongst the best!
Brazil is the only team to have won 5 out of 18 World Cup events held so far, since 1930. They were crowned the champions for the first time in 1958 and successfully defended the title four years later in 1962. They couldn’t complete a hat trick but came back strongly in 1970 to win their third title, and keep the coveted Jules Rimet trophy for good for winning 3 titles. Then came a hiatus of 24 years that was broken by the South Americans in 1994 whereas they took their total number of titles to 5 with their last win in 2002. They are also the only team to make it through the qualification, a feat unmatched so far.
When it comes to the grand finale of World Cup event, Brazil & Germany stand out with 7 appearances each. The two teams also are the joint record holders of teams to play most matches, with 92 matches. Brazil’s 64 wins from those 92 are the most by any team in the history of the event. They also managed to net the ball 201 times to achieve these wins, five of which came in the big matches.
Hungary holds the record for most goals in a single World Cup event. Their tally of 54 goals in the 1954 event is still the highest. They also hold the record for most goals scored in a World Cup match. The Hungarians demolished El Salvador in 1982 by 10 goals to 1 in 1982 to become the first and so far the only team to score 10 or more goals in a World Cup match.
Own goals are the worst form of losing a match, and there have been 3 instances where as many as 4 own goals were scored in a World Cup Event. While the first instance happened in 1954, the other two came as late as in 1998 & 2006.
Let’s move on to individual records from team records. If Brazil dominated the team records, their star forward Ronaldo stands tall as the scorer of most goals in World Cup history. He has scored the goal 15 times in the three World Cups he played in between 1998 and 2006.
Russia’s Oleg Salenko holds the record of most goals in a World Cup match. His five goals against Cameroon in 1994 are still unmatched even after 16 years. The honour of scoring the first hat trick in the World Cup goes to Bert Patenaude of US who did so during the first edition of the mega event.
The record of making the most appearances in World Cup History is held by Lothar Matthäus of Germany/West Germany who featured in no less than 25 matches during the five World Cups he played in between 1982 and 1998. He shares the record of most World Cup events with Mexico’s Antonio Carbajal who also featured in 5 events between 1950 and 1966.
And finally, the most coveted of records. The honour of being in the winning side on most occasions goes to Brazil’s Pelé who was part of the World Cup winning squad in 1958, 1962 and 1970. He is also the youngest player to score in a World Cup as well as the youngest to win one.
With the World Cup in progress, every team is aiming to beat the other team to the trophy. Let's hope that the event will see many new players break these records which have gone stronger with the passage of time.
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