Ahead of what promises to be another spectacular renewal, we’re taking a look at some notable World Cup facts and figures from past tournaments.
Almost every event throws up new records and interesting statistics, so let’s crunch those World Cup numbers:
1 – player has scored a World Cup final hat-trick and then lifted the trophy, Geoff Hurst for England. Kylian Mbappe netted three times before France lost to Argentina on penalties in 2022.
2 – FIFA confederations to have supplied a World Cup finalist – UEFA, with 12 winners and 17 runners-up, and South American confederation CONMEBOL with 10 and five.
3 – there are three co-host nations for the first time – the United States, Mexico and Canada.
4 – nations making their World Cup debuts – Cape Verde, Curacao, Jordan and Uzbekistan.
5 – Brazil’s record number of World Cup wins. Pele played in three of those for an individual record.
5 – the award for most goals in a match goes to Russia’s Oleg Salenko against Cameroon in 1994.
6 – teams to have won the tournament while playing on home turf, with France the most recent in 1998.
6 – Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi will play at a record sixth men’s World Cup this summer. Messi already holds the record of 26 matches played, having passed Germany’s Lothar Matthaus in the 2022 final.
8 – nations to have won the tournament, with Brazil one ahead of Italy and Germany, while there have been three wins for Argentina, two apiece for Uruguay and France and one each for England and Spain.
10 – England’s Peter Shilton and Fabien Barthez of France share the record for most clean sheets.
11 – seconds is all it took for Turkey’s Hakan Sukur to score the fastest goal against South Korea in 2002.
13 – Just Fontaine’s goal tally in 1958 for France remains the record for a single World Cup.
16 – former Germany striker Miroslav Klose is the World Cup’s all-time record goalscorer. Messi and Mbappe, on 13 and 12 respectively, have the opportunity this summer to chase him down.
17 – Pele’s age when winning his first World Cup in 1958. He is also the youngest player to score in a final and any World Cup fixture.
23 – this will be the 23rd edition of the World Cup.
27 – England’s fastest World Cup goal was scored by Bryan Robson against France in 1982 after this number of seconds.
28 – years between World Cup appearances for Scotland, qualifiers for the first time since 1998.
39 – duration of this year’s tournament in days, from June 11 to July 19, for 104 matches.
40 – Dino Zoff’s age when he became the oldest player to win a World Cup with Italy in 1982.
42 – Roger Milla is the oldest goalscorer after netting for Cameroon versus Russia in 1994.
45 – Egypt goalkeeper Essam El-Hadary is the oldest player in a World Cup match after appearing in 2018.
48 – teams at the tournament, an expansion from the 32 at every tournament since 1998.
56 – seconds is all it took for Uruguay’s Jose Batista to receive the fastest red card against Scotland in 1986.
60 – the number of years since England were World Cup winners.
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