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The word ‘Soccer’ needs no introduction to anybody in the world, whatever country he may come from. Undoubtedly the most popular sport in the world, soccer or football as it is called in several parts of the globe, is the very definition of the term ‘global’. A jaw-dropping total of 205 countries were involved in the qualifying for the 2010 FIFA World Cup and an estimated 1 billion around the planet are believed to have been glued to their television sets when Spain defeated the Netherlands in the final.
Soccer is widely believed to have originated in Britain. The world’s oldest club, Sheffield Football Club formed in 1857 and the world’s oldest football tournament, the FA Cup do indeed herald from Britain. England alone boasts of a staggering 450 professional football teams with the Barclays Premier League occupying the highest tier in English football. Add to that the other top European nations like Spain, Italy and Germany that also have in excess of 200 professional teams, thus making the task of calculating the total number of professional footballers near impossible!
Some of the most popular clubs in the world are Manchester United, Real Madrid and Barcelona, with each club boasting of a fanbase in excess of 50 million. History sees Real Madrid as the most successful club ever with 9 European Cup titles and 31 League titles and 18 domestic cup titles. At the international level, Brazil is the most decorated club with five World Cup wins and is also the only nation to have participated in every World Cup.
Soccer is also the highest paying team sport in the globe with the prize money for the FIFA World Cup champions being a massive US $30Million. Real Madrid paid the highest transfer fee in the history of the game when they brought Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United for a record US $130Million just days after the US $95Million capture of Kaka. The most valuable football brand of football is however England’s David Beckham with a net worth of US $219Million and an annual income of US $40Million that includes his endorsements and sponsorship deals as well. However, the highest wages received by a football player for a month is Samuel Eto’o who is reported to collect a paycheck of US $2.5Million. If you want to appreciate that fact better, you should know that Eto’o could afford to have up to 209 MLS in his personal payroll!
Sir Alex Ferguson is one of the most successful, admired and respected managers in the game and has been serving at Manchester United since November 1986, even before Lionel Messi was born! Johan Cruyff is another football legend who is credited with the introduction of the revolutionary ‘Total Football’ concept. Cruyff led Ajax to a hatrick of European Cup wins as a player and also had a highly successful stint as manager. ‘Total Football’ is a tactic in which any outfield player can take any position in the pitch and is employed in Barcelona to this day.
The football match with the most attendance ever was the final group game between Uruguay and Brazil in the 1950 FIFA World Cup at the Estadio do Maracana that had an attendance estimated to be around 210,000. Other massive stadiums around the world include the Rungrado May Stadium in North Korea, India’s Salt Lake Stadium and Barcelona’s Camp Nou that all have a seating capacity of around 100,000.
