130 Unknown Facts About Football You Didn't Know

130 Unknown Facts About Football You Didn't Know

• Sheffield FC is the first football club in the world.
• Football had its roots in China and originated in around 476 B.C.
• Football is the most-watched and the most played sport in the world.
• The highest-scoring game recorded is found to have ended 149-0.
• Arthur Wharton was the black footballer who reportedly debuted in the 1800s.
• Pele was the first person ever to refer to football as “the beautiful game.”
• Lightening resulted in the death of an entire football team in 1998.
• Neil Armstrong wanted to take a football to the moon, but his proposal was turned down by NASA because they felt it was too un-American.
• Ryan Giggs has been substituted 134 times which is more than any other football player.
• Gareth Bale has scored, assisted, scored their own goal, and got a yellow card all in one single Premier League football game: Tottenham vs. Liverpool in 2013.
• Two players have scored a hat-trick by heading the ball into the net in a Premier League match: Duncan Ferguson for Everton in a game against Bolton in 1997 and Salomon Rondon for West Bromwich Albion in a game against Swansea in 2016.
• Three players who were born after the Premier League began in 1992 have scored a hat-trick in a Premier League game: Raheem Sterling, Harry Kane, and Romelu Lukaku.
• Mark Hughes once played for Wales and Bayern Munic on the same day. With players running just under 10km per day on average, that was a big workout for Hughes!
• László Kubala is the only player to play for three countries and be recognized by FIFA, Argentina, Spain, and Columbia.
• The quickest hat-trick in a football game was scored by Sadio Mane in a Southampton vs Aston Villa game in 2015, he managed to score all 3 goals in 2 minutes 56 seconds.
• An international football player named Ahn Jung-hwan was kicked out of his club Perugia FC in Italy. They dropped him because, while he was playing for his national team Korea, he scored the winner in a game to knock the Italian national team out of the world cup.
• If Sweden plays against Denmark then they can be abbreviated to either SWE-DEN or DEN-MARK. The same for Cyprus and Russia which is CYP-RUS or RUS-SIA.
• Marta Vieira da Silva has won the FIFA World Player of the Year six times.
• The first-ever game of basketball was actually played with a football.
• Cristiano Ronaldo has scored a goal for every minute of a football game. He has scored most frequently in the 23rd minute of games.
• Dundee United has a 100% win record again Barcelona. They played 4 professional matches against them and had won all 4.
• The Brazilian Ronaldo has never won the Champions League despite playing for four teams that did. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the other one.
• Manual Neuer, the current German goalkeeper, took an important part in the German version of “Monsters’ University,” the 2013 Pixar film.
• Football is widely regarded as the most popular sport in the world. This is perhaps the only reason they say- “Football; created by the poor, stolen by the rich.”
• West Auckland Town FC was the first English team to win a major European trophy.
• Ricardo Olivera of Uruguay scored one of the fastest goals in December 1988 in a record time of 2.8 seconds.
• Neil Armstrong wanted to take a football to the moon with him but NASA didn't allow it because they thought it was un-American.
• Women's Football was banned in 1921 and only reinstated officially in 1971. The Women's football league is now known as the FA Women's National League.
• Nylon twine is used to stitch the grass together on the football field at White Heart Lane, Tottenham Hotspurs former stadium. There is enough twine in the stadium to stretch all around the world!
• The football team with the longest name in the world is a Dutch one known as Nooit opgeven altijd doorgan, Aangenaam door vermaak en nuttig door ontspanning, Combinatie Breda. They are commonly referred to as NAC Breda.
• Bert Trautman broke his neck during the 1956 Cup Final, between Manchester City and Birmingham City. He was knocked out, but was woken up and played on! None of the players or officials realized he had broken anything at the time and he was very lucky that such a severe neck injury did not kill him.
• The youngest person to play in the Premier League is Harvey Elliot. He had just turned 16 (one month before) he played his debut alongside seasoned players for Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2019.
• Real Madrid has won the most Champions League Finals at a whopping 13.
• An estimated 265 million people play football around the world.
• An estimated four billion people watch football around the world. An estimated 3.5 billion people watched the 2018 FIFA World Cup Final.
• Athletes work hard to get to the top of their game, but every sport needs special equipment to ensure the safety of their players. While football padding, football helmets, and football gloves are commonplace, many fans don't realize football is played with sticky gloves. Football glove's sticky spray ensures that the player catches the ball and keeps their grip when they run. Stick football gloves can be the difference between a fumble and a touchdown, making football gloves sticky spray a necessity on the field. 
• Football isn't the only sport that utilizes sticky spray, however. One of the only sports ever played on the moon also used the spray: golf is another common sport that needs the extra grip. 
• Just like how sticky football gloves make for easier gameplay, the markings on a college football are slightly different from its professional counterpart. There are white stripes painted at either end of the ovular ball to make it easier to spot when it's passed between players.
• A football's shape is actually called a prolate spheroid, essentially translating to "long sphere." A football glove's sticky spray becomes even more important due to the abnormal shape of the ball.
• In order to promote the passing game and help quarterbacks get a good grip, the NFL management altered the shape of the ball in the year 1934. With new rules in place, the ball got skinnier and longer in shape.
• The forward pass was legalized in 1906 after a bunch of college football coaches altered the rules of American Football to reduce injuries on the field. Earlier, a forward pass was not allowed within 5 years of the center.
• The Pittsburgh Steelers have registered the highest number of Super Bowl victories. Denver Broncos have registered the highest number of Super Bowl losses.
• A sports equipment manufacturing company, Wilson has been supplying footballs for the NFL games since 1941. The company has an exclusive contract for providing footballs to the NFL; it now produces thousands of footballs every day.
• Football cheerleaders are not paid much. They make around $100 per game but end up spending a lot on buying makeup and other accessories.
• Football coach Don Shula has registered the highest number of victories. He coached the Baltimore Colts and the Miami Dolphins. The two teams together registered 328 seasons with Don Shula as head coach.
• The huddle was first used in the 1890s by quarterback Paul Hubbard, who was deaf. Hubbard was concerned the other team could interpret his hand signals, so he brought his teammates into a round formation to call plays.
• The first professional football player was William “Pudge” Heffelfinger. He was paid $500 to play in a game in 1892.
• The first televised professional football game took place in 1939. It wasn’t quite the huge spectacle that pro football has become—that first broadcast only appeared on approximately 500 TV sets.
• If you’re talking to a mathematician, the shape of a football is best described as a “prolate spheroid.” But everyone will know what you’re talking about if you just say “football-shaped.”
• Fans who pay attention to the ball itself will notice a subtle difference between the pro and college balls. While both levels use identically sized balls, college games are played with balls that have white stripes painted on either end. These markings supposedly make a passed ball easier to spot while it’s in flight.
• Walter Payton and David Patton are the only two players to have managed the rare feat of catching, rushing, and throwing a touchdown, against the same opponent in the same match.
• More than two-thirds of NFL players go bankrupt just two years after the end of their football careers.
• In 1958, a fan ran onto the pitch during a championship game; the game had to be paused for some time. Later on, it was found that the fan was actually an NBC employee who intentionally caused this distraction to buy enough time for his network to fix a technical glitch.
• Byron White is one of the most decorated players to have played in the NFL. He was a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, a Rhodes Scholar, a war hero, and a Supreme Court judge.
• Chicago Bears is the only team that has not changed its name or city since the year 1922. The NFL had its inaugural season in 1920. At first, it was known as the American Professional Football Association (APFA).
• Kickers got more respect in those early days. Originally, touchdowns were only worth four points, while field goals were worth five.
• In football’s early days, the forward pass was illegal, so most plays were variations on a theme of “ball carrier smashes into the line of scrimmage.” Unsurprisingly, this limited playbook led to a lot of injuries.
• As president, Teddy Roosevelt threatened to ban football unless new rules were established to ensure player safety. The revised rules introduced the forward pass.
• The new rules also cut the time of the games by ten minutes. Games were originally 70 minutes long.
• The longest field goal made in pro football history was 64 yards. The longest attempted field goal in pro football history was 76 yards. It missed.
• The name “football” was originally fitting since the game was largely played with players’ feet. The first college game took place in 1869, but modern fans likely wouldn’t have recognized the action. Each team had 25 men, and players weren’t allowed to pick the ball up. Instead, they advanced towards the goal by kicking it or swiping at it with their hands.
• One of the facts that may surprise you is that football was invented in 476 BC in China. It was first called Cuju and was played with two teams who played the match with a ball made from an animal bladder. The aim was to use your feet to get the ball through an opening and into a net and was a form of training for the military.
• The highest score ever recorded in a professional football match was 149-0 when the team SO l'Emyrne purposely lost the game due to an argument with the referee.
• The oldest living football player is Kazuyoshi Miura, he plays in the Japanese League for Yokohama FC. He is currently 53 years old and has been playing since he was only 15.
• Sheffield FC is the oldest professional football team, they were formed on 24th October 1857.
• There are many high-value players in the premier league but Mbappé has a transfer value of $423 million. He currently plays for Paris Saint-Germain and if Mbappé transfers, the next football club will have to pay up!
• Like most sports, football has an amazing history, full of unique terminology and records. Here are five things even avid football players may not have known about the sport. 
• Football is a pretty young sport
• American football was invented in 1882, making it only 136 years old. While it's still an impressive age, this is nothing compared to the age of soccer: it was invented in the 5th century B.C. in China. 
• Football was founded after rugby rules were modified to accommodate gameplay, but during its advent, it was played more like soccer: players could only kick at the ball and hit it with their hands, hence the name of the game. 
• Unlike rugby, football allows three tries to move the ball five yards down the field. This also led to the gridiron pattern on the football field, so referees could track the movement of the ball.
• Huddles only became commonplace after its advent, thanks to Paul Hubbard, an 1890s quarterback. Hubbard was deaf and didn't want the other teams to read his hand signals, creating the huddle precedent that's followed us to this day. 
• Football has a rich history full of fun facts, trivia, and historic landmarks. Use these facts to impress your friends at the next game day.
• Over 5,098 teams participated in the largest football tournament in the world; the 1999 League 7-a-side competition in Bangkok.
• Simon Mignolet, the current Liverpool goalkeeper, speaks 5 languages and also has a degree in politics.
• Simon Mignolet, the Liverpool goalkeeper, started his career as a forward and tried his hand in goalkeeping only after being dropped from the team.
• Football players run an average of 9.65 kilometers during a game.
• The very first game of basketball is widely speculated to have been played with a football.
• Until 1913, football goalkeepers wore the same shirt as their teammates. The rules were probably changed due to a mix-up.
• Ronaldinho first came into the limelight when his youth team won 23-0 in a local game. He scored all 23.
• More than 80% of footballs in the world are manufactured in Pakistan.
• The first live coverage of a football game was shown in the year 1937.
• The Isles of Scilly has only two football teams: The Wanderers and The Gunners. They play with each other every week.
• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, played keeper for Portsmouth under the name AC Smith.
• Dennis Bergkamp, the Arsenal legend, missed away games because of his fear of flying. That’s why he is widely known as the Non-Flying Dutchman among Arsenal fans.
• 20 red cards were shown in a game between General Caballero and Sportivo Ameliano in Paraguay.
• The National Football League (NFL) hired its first full-time official (Sarah Thomas) as recently as 2015. The first woman to become an NFL official was Shannon Easton but she did not join as a full-time official.
• American Football evolved from English sports such as soccer and rugby. It became highly popular in American colleges by the end of the 19th
• The Super Bowl happens to be the most-watched TV broadcast in the US. Currently, Super Bowl XLIX with 114 million viewers is the most-watched event in the US.
• During the initial years, the NFL struggled financially. Now, the NFL records revenues worth over $9 billion each year. After deducting the expenses such as players’ wages, maintenance of stadiums, etc., the NFL makes a neat profit of around $1 billion.
• A football is made out of cow skin (and not pigskin).
• Until the year 1943, it was not a compulsory requirement for football players to put on helmets.
• At one point in time, then US President Roosevelt threatened to ban the sport if necessary changes in rules weren’t brought to ensure player safety.
• Football was essentially rugby until 1882 when new rules were established that gave each team three tries to advance the ball five yards.
• That’s also why the field looks like a gridiron. Lines had to be established so teams knew how far they had to go.
• When future president Herbert Hoover attended Stanford in the early 1890s, he was a student manager of the football team. According to team lore, when Stanford and Cal met on the field for the first time in 1892, there was a delay after Hoover forgot to bring the ball.
• Modern games don’t have this problem: Pro rules dictate that the home team has to have 36 balls (for outdoor games) or 24 balls (for indoor games) ready for inspection by the referee two hours before a game’s starting time.

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