World Cup Trivia

This is my last World Cup blog entry for a while, but Daniel helped me gather some rather cool trivia.

Flags
There is red in all of the flags of European World Cup winners, but in none of the flags of South American World Cup winners.

Gold Medals
There are now as many gold medals won by Spanish speaking countries (Uruguay '30 and '50, Argentina '78 and '86, Spain '10) as Portugese speaking countries (Brazil '58, '62, '70, '94, '02).

Spain is, so far, the only football World Cup gold medalist of the 21st century not to have won gold in the 20th century too.

Four countries have won gold in the World Cup before winning any other medals: Uruguay ('30 - first ever World Cup), Italy ('34), England ('66), and Spain ('10).

All the three countries which have won gold but no other kind of medal has fourth as next best result: Spain in '50, Uruguay in '54, '70, and '10, England in '90.

Silver Medals
The Netherlands is alone on top of the list of "number of World Cup finals of countries which has been there but never won gold": three: the Netherlands ('74, '78, '10), two: Czechoslovakia ('34, '62) and Hungary ('38, '54), one: Sweden ('58).

The Netherlands is the country which has lost the most games for World Cup medals without having won any: three finals ('74, '78, and '10) and one bronze game ('98). Germany has lost four finals ('66, '82, '86, and '02) and one bronze game ('58), but has won as well.

Four countries have won silver before winning any other medals: Argentina ('30), Czechoslovakia ('34), Hungary ('38), and the Netherlands ('74).

Sweden is the only country to have won both silver ('58) and bronze ('50 and '94) without ever winning gold.

Many Different Medalists
Out of all the nineteen World Cups played so far, there are only seven when all the medalists have taken medals before: '70, '78, '82, '86, '90, '94, and '06.

The World Cup 2010 was the seventh where medals have only been awarded European countries, the others being '34, '54, '66, '74, '82, and '06. There has been no World Cup with only South American medalists.

Out of all the nineteen medalists, there are as many as seven that has not won more than 1 bronze each.

The USA (bronze '30) is the only medalist not to come from the football associations of either Europe nor South America.

Top Scorers
The 2010 World Cup was the third where more than one player has won the list of top scorers, the others were '62 and '94.

Fans
Some people living in Africa can say that they live in the country winning the first World Cup played in Africa: inhabitants of the Spanish towns of Ceuta and Melilla and of the Canary Islands.

While Brazil is the only South American country to have won gold when the World Cup was played in Europe ('58), other South Americans can also say their home country won the World Cup when it was played in Europe: inhabitants of French Guyana, since France won in '98.