Beyond football, the FIFA World Cup is full of strange coincidences and even “curses” that fans obsess over.
, the international competition is also full of inexplicably strange coincidences and even “curses” that fans obsess over every four years. From a psychic octopus to Singapore’s unforgettable “own goal”, here are six weird World Cup stories and patterns that continue to live in everyone’s mind:However, his uncanny streak turned him into an unlikely football celebrity and meme — even before memes were part of our collective internet consciousness.
A 2014 advertisement by the National Council on Problem Gambling featured a boy confiding to his friend that his father had bet all the family’s savings on a German victory. As fate would have it, Germany emerged champion at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil after defeating Argentina in the final.
For five straight World Cups since 2006, the Golden Ball winner — which is awarded to the tournament’s best player — went to someone wearing a number 10 jersey. This includes Zinedine Zidane , Diego Forlán , Luka Modrić , and Lionel Messi . To date, Messi is the only player to have won the prestigious award twice in his career. Argentina won the World Cup in 1978, 1986 and 2022.
Oddly enough, Nigeria has failed to qualify for the tournament these three years. The two nations have also faced each in five other consecutive tournaments during the group stage until this year, as Nigeria did not qualify. Does this mean yet another Argentina win?
Winning the World Cup apparently comes with some degree of bad luck, and reigning champions struggle to make it past even the group stage at their next tournament.just at the very next tournament — including France , Italy , Spain and Germany , fueling chatter of a “defending champion curse”. This has apparently been observed in 1994 and 2006 .
This year, Arsenal was not just in the UEFA Champions League final — the club is also the Premier League champion. What could this possibly mean for the likes of Argentina, which has three titles?
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