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12 Interesting Football Facts for Kids 2024 [Must Read]

China may have discovered football game records dating back over 2,000 years which would make football one of the world’s oldest sports. Football has been played for thousands of years in Greece, Rome, and Central American countries. There are various interesting football facts for kids that they would like to know.

Beginning of Football 

Most people agree that the football game was first played in England in the 12th century. During this time, people in England liked to play games like football. Players not only kicked the ball but also punched it with their fists. This early version of football was much rougher and bloodier than the game we play now. 

The Basics of Football

Football has become more of a tactical game in the last few decades. Now, opponents and managers try to play to their team’s strengths and take advantage of the weaknesses of their opposing team. With better technology and more people who know much about the professional football game, the game will likely look very different in just a few years.

In English football, there are rules against tripping opponents and touching the ball with your hands, among other things. There are many exciting football facts that any fan would love to know.

12 Fun Football Facts for Kids

12 Fun Football Facts For Kids

Only eight countries have won the World Cup.

Every four years since 1930, the FIFA World Cup has been held. Since the first one in Uruguay, there have been 21 World Cups, but only eight different countries have won the championship. The Brazilian national team is the most successful in the history of the FIFA World Cup. They have won the tournament a record-tying five times.

One of the most widely played sports worldwide is football.

As of June 2018, the world’s population was 7.5 billion people. A 2001 Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) survey found that 240 million people from all over the world regularly play football. In 2001, there were 6.19 billion people on the planet. That’s almost 4% of all the people in the world. It was estimated that 3.572 billion people watched the 2018 World Cup, which was held in Russia. National Football League is the most-watched sports league in the United States.

North Korea has the largest football stadium

The Rungrado 1st of May Stadium in Pyongyang, which can hold up to 150,000 people, is the biggest stadium in the world. Some sources say that the stadium can only hold 114,000 people, which would still make it the largest stadium in the world.

Big Football Stadium

But the most people ever to watch a game was 199,854 in 1950 when Uruguay played Brazil. At the moment, 78,838 people are expected to show up.

The largest club name is 83 letters long

One of the strangest things about football is that there is a club with the most letters. People often call the Dutch football team NAC Breda. This Dutch football team has a name that is made up of 83 letters. 

Kids Playing Football

The shape of football players

People say football is one of the most challenging sports, especially for the body. Did you know a professional football player runs about 7 miles (11.2 km) on average? That’s on top of the fact that a game usually lasts 90 minutes with only a 15-minute break at halftime.

Professional football teams usually practice 4 to 6 hours a day, five days a week. People who want to play football professionally are told to practice about the same amount of time each week.

Some players had to play multiple games in a day

Today, players usually have 4 to 5 days off between games. If the schedule is tight, they still get two days to mentally and physically recover.

International Players playing Football
Two teams playing football

But in the 1990s, when money was tight and players had to do whatever it took to keep the game going, Mark Hughes, a star player for Manchester United and Wales, had to play in two games on the same day. Hughes had to play for his new team, Bayern Munchen, and his national team, England, on the same day because he had just been traded from Manchester United to Bayern Munchen.

There are asteroids named after football players.

An asteroid named after Johan Cruyff, a soccer star from the Netherlands and Barcelona. Before, the asteroid was known by the less exciting name “14282.” The asteroid “Cruijff” is about nine kilometers across, making it five years, three months, and 18 days to circle the sun.

Cruyff is not the first football player to be honored with an asteroid. In the past, asteroids are also named after Josef “Pepi” Bican and Ferenc Puskas.

Player Playing Football

Who named it “soccer”?

The British made up the word “soccer” but stopped using it 30 years ago. In the early 1800s, several universities in Britain took the medieval game “football” and made their versions of it, each with its own rules.

Only two countries around the world call football “soccer”. America and Canada are the two places. If you say “football” in the United States, people will think of American football, a trendy sport there. A similar sport called “Canadian football” is played in Canada, similar to American football.

Oldest football player.

People say that football is very demanding, mentally and physically, and that no one has a long career besides goalkeepers. But there are some players whose skills prove these claims wrong.

Kazuyoshi Miura is a football player from Japan who is 55 years old. He played the Forward position for Yokohama FC until he was 53. He has been playing for over 34 years, which is when most football players say they are done.

The size of the ball barely ever changed.

Things change when a game has been around as long as football has, but no one knew that the size of a football had stayed the same for 120 years. The shape and size of a football haven’t changed. It still has a 28-inch circumference.

Football Goal

There are 36 red cards in one game.

In 2011, people saw one of the craziest football facts come to light. In the 5th tier of the Argentinian football league, Claypole and Victoriano Arenas played a game against each other, and two players were sent off before the first half was over. People had no idea it was the first step in a chain of events.

When the second half started, everything went crazy, and 36 red cards were given out in that one game. In this game, referee Damian Rubino gave each team player a red card, and 14 substitutes and coaches also got red cards.

First Basketball games were played with “soccer” balls

Basketball’s origins can be traced back to football. Initially, they used the same ones in the game. At the time, soccer balls had laces, which was a problem. Laces weren’t a problem in soccer because the grass would smooth out any bumps.

However, a basketball court’s hard surface isn’t as forgiving. The laces were needed to close the airtight bladder that was used to inflate the ball, but eventually, a ball without laces was made, and both soccer and basketball started using it. The game didn’t become popular until Tony Hinkle came up with the orange ball that is used today. He did this to make the ball easier to see for both players and spectators.

Conclusion

This game shows how passionate people can be in a way that few other sports do. People are packed into the arenas, and even more watch carefully and sometimes with a lot of excitement in front of the TV. Today, more than 250 million people play soccer, but the game looked very different just a few hundred years ago. It’s a game that is constantly changing and growing as new rules have been added that shape the game as we know it today. 

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