While the 2022/2023 European football season may have drawn the curtain – with Manchester City’s emphatic ‘treble’ being the highlight of it all, the upcoming Women’s World Cup and the bustling football transfer market ensure that the sport remains a hot topic.
Being one of the oldest known sports known to mankind, with records found dating over 2,000 years, football naturally harbours intriguing and extraordinary facts that fascinate fans. One of the remarkable aspects of football overtime remains is its uncanny ability to surprise even the most unlikely of fans, adding to its allure. Capitalising on the surprise the game offers, we take a look at seven football facts that might appear too unrealistic for you to believe.
Harry Maguire got relegated with two teams in a season and going on to become the world’s most expensive defender
Relegation is not a new concept for Man United’s captain Harry Maguire. The English defender once endured a bottom-three finish with Sheffield United in the 2011/12 season, Hull City (twice) and Wigan with two of these relegations even occurring in the same season.
Maguire sensationally started the 2014/15 campaign with a 90-minute display in the Europa League, making his Hull City debut in a 1-0 defeat to Belgian outfit K.S.C. Lokeren Oost-Vlaanderen. However, the European outing would prove to be just one of four appearances for Maguire at the KC Stadium.
Shipped out on loan to Wigan for the second half of the season, after racking up just 92 minutes in the Premier League, Maguire featured in every fixture for the Latics after starting a 1-0 win away at Reading. But the loanee was unable to guide the club away from sliding into League 1, Wigan lost 9 of their remaining 16 matches, and Maguire returned to Hull at the end of the season.
While the Tigers started the campaign in Europe, Steve Bruce’s side were also unable to prevent a late-season crumble, as 2 wins in their final 12 matches saw Hull City exit the top flight after a memorable two-year stint.
Harry Maguire has since gone on to become football’s most expensive centre-defender after his record-setting transfer from Leicester City in 2019.
Mark Hughes playing for Bayern Munich and Wales on the same day
Former Manchester United and Chelsea attacker Mark Hughes had just completed his transfer from Barcelona to Bayern Munich in the summer of 1987 and was due to play for Wales against Czechoslovakia in Prague in a Euro ’88 qualifier.
Bayern’s Uli Hoeness, who was pivotal to the Welshman’s transfer, wanted Hughes to play for Bayern as soon as he got his contract signed and he came up with a pretty insane plan that would allow Hughes to meet his international obligations, as well as play for Bayern in a midweek cup match.
Hughes explained the crazy turn of events that led to him playing in both Czechoslovakia and Germany on the same day – and laid the blame fully at the door of Bayern Munich’s eccentric CEO Uli Hoeness.
As reported by Planet Football, Hughes said:
“I had dinner with Uli Hoeness who asked me what time the Wales match was,” he said. “I told him it was around midday and he said: ‘That’s OK then, you can play in the evening as well.'”
Hoeness watched the game and then flew Hughes to the Bayern game on the other side of the Czech border where Borussia Monchengladbach were the opponents.
“We actually flew over the ground and missed the first half, but I got there at the start of the second half.” Bayern won.
Giuseppe Bergomi played in four World Cups without featuring in any qualifiers
Guiseppe Bergomi is a football royalty in Italy having played for the Azzurri in four World Cup tournaments. Remarkably, though, despite that, and earning 81 caps, he never played in a single World Cup qualifier.
The former Inter defender played for Italy at the 1982, 1986, 1990, and 1998 World Cups without exerting himself in any qualifiers.
As an 18-year-old he was a late addition to the side in the 1982 tournament, then the team qualified as holders in 1986, while Italy were the hosts in 1990. In 1998, at the age of 34, he was a late and surprising call-up to the squad.
Portsmouth holds the record for a club to have held the FA Cup for the longest time (despite only winning it once)
Portsmouth hold the record for the most years in possession of the prestigious FA Cup – which they had sitting in their trophy cabinet for a whopping seven consecutive years.
On the contrary (and unfortunately) for Portsmouth fans, they didn’t win it 7 times in a row. They were, in fact, the last team to win the title before World War II broke out and the competition was postponed for 7 years after winning the FA Cup in 1939.
In the same vein, Italy held the World Cup between 1934 and 1950 – 16 years, or four tournaments – having only won it twice in that time.
The FIFA World Cup 1950 edition had no final
The 1950 edition of the tournament remains the only edition not decided by a one-match final. It was also the inaugural tournament where the trophy was referred to as the Jules Rimet Cup, to mark the 25th anniversary of Jules Rimet’s presidency of FIFA.
The competition was structured in a format that had a final four in a group, as against the regular knockout style. while there was a deciding match between Uruguay and Brazil – which became the last time that Brazil would lose at home in competitive football (until Germany thumped them 7-1 in 2014) – it wasn’t really the World Cup final. For many though it was regarded as the ‘de facto’ final. As of the four teams in the final group of the competition, neither of the other two teams, Spain and Sweden, could finish first. Uruguay needed a win while Brazil needed only to avoid defeat to become the world champions. Sadly, for the Selecao, that tournament birthed what is still today regarded as the “Phantom of ’50.”
Bobby Zamora and Obafemi Martins are the only two footballers to have scored penalties with their right and left foot in the Premier League.
Ambipedal is the term used to refer to players who are able to use both feet with equal ease. Whilst it’s conventional for the modern professional footballer to be fairly comfortable with using both feet, Bobby Zamora and Obafemi Martins are remarkably the only two Premier League players to have scored penalties with both feet.
Zamora is normally a left-footer but during the Fulham – Newcastle match in 2012, the attacker decided to take a penalty kick with his right foot and he scored.
Obafemi Martins is also considered an ambipedal player and during his three years in the Tyneside team, Martins scored 2 penalties, one with his right foot and one with his left.
Alvin Martin once scored a hat-trick against three different goalkeepers in one match
Playing before a crowd of almost 25,000 at Upton Park, Newcastle began the day with Martin Thomas, their regular goalkeeper. Thomas had missed their previous match, a 1–1 draw at Chelsea, due to a shoulder injury and was still not completely fit. However, Newcastle’s backup keeper had sustained an injury in their previous game at Stamford Bridge and did not make the trip to West Ham, so Thomas had to start.
After only four minutes, Martin beat Thomas for his first goal of the day. By halftime, with Thomas having conceded two more West Ham goals and a Newcastle own-goal, was unable to continue, and was replaced by midfielder Chris Hedworth for the second half. Hedworth lasted less than 30 minutes in goal after damaging his collarbone on an awkward fall, but not before Martin scored again.
As Hedworth returned to the midfield, forward Peter Beardsley stepped between the sticks and conceded three more goals, the last of which was delivered by Martin in the 84th minute. The Hammers won 8-1 on the night and Martin made history!
