Surprising Facts About Football You May Not Know

Learn about lesser-known football facts. Discover interesting facets to the most popular game on earth and it may deepen your enjoyment of the next game.

Little Known Facts About Football

Widely accepted to have originated in the 12th Century in England, modern football as we know it really started taking shape in the 1800s. It differs from its predecessor in that players were not limited to kicking the ball but could punch it with their fists as well!

Over the years, many incredible events have occurred. Find out more and marvel at just what The Beautiful Game is capable of.

The Naked Truth

• Ronaldinho is widely accepted as one of the world’s all-time greatest players and his origin story sets the groundwork for what he would become. The Brazilian footballer took part in a game when he was just 13-years old in which his team won 23 – 0. Guess who scored each one of those goals? 

That’s right! Ronaldinho. 

• The Barbadian football team took part in the Shell Caribbean Cup in 1994 and scored an own goal so that they could advance in the tournament.

They had to win by at least two goals to get any further. The team decided that, because goals scored during extra time counted double, if they forced the match to run over, they would be able to get the points they needed to win there. 

It worked.

• Football was once nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. In 2001, Lars Gustafsson, a politician from Sweden, pointed out how the game was able to bring nations together that were otherwise hostile. 
• Port Vale is as good a wager in a game as Djokovic is a likely winner for an Australian Open bet. This is because it’s the only club in the English Football Top Four Division to have beaten every other club in the Football and Premier Leagues in a competitive fixture. 
• Sheffield Football Club is the oldest one in the world. It was founded in October 1857, on October 24th, which means it’s coming in on its 200th birthday soon. 
• In December 1942, Stephan Stanis, a French striker, managed to score an incredible 16 goals for his team, Racing Club de Lens. All these years later, he still holds the record, with no single player even coming close to this feat again. 
• Lionel Messi is proof of the extraordinary talent South Americans bring to the football field. Ricardo Olivera, from Brazil, is another gem in this continent’s football crown, holding the record for the fastest goal ever scored. On the 26th of December, Olivera gave his team a point in 2.8 seconds. 

To put this into perspective, the average human being speaks nearly eight words in three seconds. The commentators saying that we have just had the kick-off is the time it would have taken to switch the scoreboard in Brazil’s favour. 

Olivera’s amazing gameplay broke Colin Cowperthwaite’s 1979 record when the English player scored a goal in 3.5 seconds in a game against Kettering.

The Beautiful Game

It has to be said that there is simply no other sport that creates as much excitement and suspense for its players as football. It’s a game that unites communities, nations, and even the world! The fact that it has so many interesting stories to tell is just one more point in its favour.