If you’re new to soccer, one of the first things that trips you up is the clock. In most American sports — football, basketball, hockey — the clock counts down and the game ends when it hits zero. Soccer does the opposite: the clock starts at zero and counts up, and it never stops. So … Read more
The World Cup has always been the biggest stage in football. What it pays, though, is a different story depending on when you showed up. When Italy won in 1982, the prize for lifting the trophy was $2.2 million split among a squad of players and staff. Good money in 1982, but pocket change by … Read more
Watch a match from the upper deck and the players look tiny, lost in a sea of green that seems to stretch forever. That impression is not an illusion. A football pitch is genuinely enormous, big enough that fans reach for farmland comparisons to make sense of it, which is exactly why so many people … Read more
The World Cup Golden Boot goes to the top scorer of each tournament, and the most recent winner is France’s Kylian Mbappé, who netted 8 goals at Qatar 2022 — edging Lionel Messi’s 7 as Argentina took the title. The all-time single-tournament record still belongs to France’s Just Fontaine, whose 13 goals in 1958 have … Read more
Lionel Messi holds the all-time record for most men’s World Cup appearances with 26 matches, set across five tournaments from 2006 to 2022. He’s followed by Germany’s Lothar Matthäus (25), Miroslav Klose (24), Italy’s Paolo Maldini (23), and Cristiano Ronaldo (22). On the national side, Brazil leads everything: the only country to play in all … Read more
22 FIFA World Cups have been played since the tournament began in 1930 (the 1942 and 1946 editions were canceled due to World War II). Just 8 nations have ever lifted the trophy. Brazil leads all countries with 5 World Cup titles (1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, 2002). Germany and Italy are tied at 4 each. … Read more
The biggest World Cup stadium in history is the Maracanã in Rio de Janeiro, which held a verified attendance of 199,854 fans for the 1950 World Cup Final between Brazil and Uruguay — the largest crowd ever recorded at a soccer match. That record will never be broken under modern FIFA safety regulations, which mandate … Read more
Soccer balls come in five official sizes (1 through 5), with size 5 being the FIFA regulation ball for all professional, college, and adult matches. The right size depends on the player’s age: size 3 for ages 8 and under (23-24″ circumference), size 4 for ages 8-12 (25-26″), and size 5 for ages 12 and … Read more
The 2026 FIFA World Cup runs June 11 to July 19, 2026, across 16 stadiums in three countries — the first World Cup hosted by three nations and the first with 48 teams. The United States hosts 78 of the 104 matches (every game from the quarterfinals on plays on American soil), with Canada hosting … Read more
A friendly game of soccer or a friendly match in soccer is just that, friendly. It’s like playing a game of pickup basketball but for soccer. What is a friendly soccer match? Or what are soccer friendlies? A soccer friendly is a noncompetitive game played outside or beyond any recognized soccer competition. A soccer friendly … Read more