With the South African World Cup just around the corner, let’s take a trip down memory lane.
1930 in Uruguay
Winners Uruguay
Runners Up Argentina
Golden Shoe Winner Gulillermo Stable (Arg) with 8 goals.
1934 in Italy
Winners Italy
Runners Up Czechoslovakia
Third Germany
Golden Shoe Winner Oldrich Nejedly (Ch) with 4 goals
1938 in France
Winners Italy
Runners Up Hungary
Third Brazil
Golden Shoe Winner Leonidas (Bra) with 8 goals
1950 in Brazil
Winners Uruguay
Runners Up Brazil
Third Sweden
Golden Shoot Winner Ademir (Bra) with 9 goals.
1954 in Switzerland
Winners German Federal Republic
Runners Up Hungary
Third Austria
Golden Shoe Winner Sandor Kocsis (Hun) with 11 goals.
1958 in Sweden
Winners Brazil
Runners Up Sweden
Third France
Golden Shoe Winner Just Fontaine (Fra) with 13 goals
1962 in Chile
Winners Brazil
Runners Up Czechoslovakia
Third Chile
Golden Shoe Winners Florian Albert (Hun), Valentin Ivanov (URS), Drazen Jerkovic (Yug), Leonel Sanchez (Chi), Vava (Bra) & Garrincha (Bra) all with 4 goals.
1966 in England
Winners England
Runners Up West Germany
Third Portugal
Golden Shoe Winner Eusebio (Por) with 9 goals.
1970 in Mexico
Winners Brazil
Runners Up Italy
Third West Germany
Golden Shoe Winner Gerd Muller (FRG) with 10 goals.
1974 in Germany
Winners West Germany
Runners Up Netherlands
Third Poland
Golden Shoe Winner Gregorz Lato (Pol) with 7 goals.
1978 in Argentina
Winners Argentina
Runners Up Netherlands
Third Brazil
Golden Shoe Winner Mario Kempes (Arg) with 6 goals.
1982 in Spain
Winners Italy
Runners Up West Germany
Third Poland
Golden Shoe Winner Paolo Rossi (Ita) with 6 goals.
1986 in Mexico
Winners Argentina
Runners Up West Germany
Third France
Golden Shoe Winner Gary Lineker (Eng) with 6 goals.
1990 in Italy
Winners West Germany
Runners Up Argentina
Third Italy
Golden Shoe Winner Salvatore Schillaci (Ita) with 6 goals.
1994 in America
Winners Brazil
Runners Up Italy
Third Sweden
Golden Shoe Winners Hristo Stoichkov (Bul) Oleg Salenko (Rus) with 6 goals.
1998 in France
Winners France
Runners Up Brazil
Third Croatia
Golden Shoe Winner Davor Suker (cro) with 6 goals.
2002 in Korea/Japan
Winners Brazil
Runners Up Germany
Third Turkey
Golden Shoe Winner Ronaldo (Bra) with 8 goals.
2006 in Germany
Winners Italy
Runners Up France
Third Germany
Golden Shoe Winner Miroslav Klose (Ger) with 5 goals.
Some more World Cup facts
Brazil is the only country to play in all World Cups for a total of 18. With every World cup, Brazil is always seen as one of the favorites and rightly so with 5 World cup trophies stored in their cabinets.
The unwanted record for the most runners up medallions goes to Germany with a total of 4.
An interesting fact, the most finals appearances goes to Brazil and Germany for a total of 7 each.
Still on Brazil, Pele, arguably one of, if not the best player ever, has the most winners medal with a total of 3.
The record for the most goals scored in the World Cup by an individual, you guessed it, Ronaldo (Brazil 1998-2006) with a total of 15 goals. Most goals in a single tournament goes to Just Fontaine (France) with an impressive 13 goals in 1958.
Most goals scored in a single match goes to a player by the name of Oleg Slanko (Russia) in 1994 against Cameroon with a tally of 5 goals.
The biggest crowd in the World Cup happened back in 1950 at the Maracana Stadium with an estimated 199,854 screaming South Americans.
Predictions for South Africa
Winners Spain
Runners Up Argentina
Third Place Portugal
Golden Shoe Winner Fernando Torres, Christiano Ronaldo with 6 goals.
What are your predictions?
winner england runners up italy. golden boot david villa wayne rooney 8.
Brazil is going to win .they are the best.