Best World Cup Facts 2017

The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The championship has been awarded every four years since the inaugural tournament in 1930, except in 1942 and 1946 when it was not held because of the Second World War. The current champion is Germany, which won its fourth title at the 2014 tournament in Brazil.

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer,[3] is a team sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball. It is played by 250 million players in over 200 countries and dependencies, making it the world's most popular sport.[4][5][6][7] The game is played on a rectangular field with a goal at each end. The object of the game is to score by getting the ball into the opposing goal.

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Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro, ComM, GOIH (Portuguese pronunciation: [kɾiʃ'tjɐnu ʁuˈnaɫdu], born 5 February 1985) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays for Spanish club Real Madrid and the Portugal national team. He primarily plays as a forward, but has also been deployed as a winger and serves as captain for Portugal. In 2008, he won his first Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year awards. Ronaldo then won the FIFA Ballon d'Or in 2013 and 2014. In 2016, he received his fourth Ballon d'Or, the most for a European player in the history of the award, and the inaugural Best FIFA Men's Player. In 2015, Ronaldo scored his 500th senior career goal for club and country.Lionel Andrés "Leo" Messi (Spanish pronunciation: [ljoˈnel anˈdɾes ˈmesi] ( listen); born 24 June 1987) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a forward for Spanish club FC Barcelona and the Argentina national team. Often considered the best player in the world and rated by many in the sport as the greatest of all time, Messi is the only player in history to win five FIFA Ballon d'Or awards, four of which he won consecutively, and the first to win three European Golden Shoes.[note 2] With Barcelona he has won eight La Liga titles, four UEFA Champions League titles, and four Copas del Rey, among other trophies. Both a prolific goalscorer and a creative playmaker, Messi holds the records for most goals scored in La Liga, a La Liga season (50), and a club football season in Europe (73), as well as those for most assists made in La Liga and the Copa América. He has scored over 500 senior career goals for club and country.Diego Armando Maradona (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈdjeɣo maɾaˈðona], born 30 October 1960) is an Argentine retired professional footballer. He has served as a manager and coach at other clubs as well as the national team of Argentina. Many in the sport, including football writers, players, and fans, regard Maradona as the greatest football player of all time.[6][7][8][9] He was joint FIFA Player of the 20th Century with Pelé.[10][11