THE BEAUTIFUL GAME 

The game of football is played and followed by millions across the globe. People spend their lives following childhood teams and favorite players. From the playgrounds to terraces supporters love a good fact or football story. Hours are spent in pubs all over the world discussing the stats and facts from years gone by right up to the present season.  There are many different categories of facts. There are the game stats, discussing top scorers, clean sheets or winning runs. The funny facts, like players who might have had one to many before a game or forgot their boots for a big final match.

In today’s blog we will be looking at a mix match of facts that are sure to blow your mind. ‘The Beautiful game’ is a term many now use to refer to the game of football. The term itself couldn’t better describe the most loved sport on the planet. It’s a little known fact the great man himself Edson Arantes do Nascimento, or more commonly known Pele. The term was used as a title for his autobiography ‘My Life and the Beautiful Game’. The list of tales and fact from the beautiful game are endless but here are a few that hopefully you haven’t yet discovered.

 RONALDO OR RONALDINHO

Ok this may get confusing. So in 1994 Ronaldo (now the old Ronaldo) won the World as a squad player at the age of 17. During the tournament he was named Ronaldinho (Little Ronaldo in Portuguese) as there was a player his senior knows as Ronaldao (big Ronaldo) playing in the team.

During the 1996 Olympics Ronaldo actually played with the name Ronaldinho on his. This tournament a player 2 years his senior Ronaldo Nazario claimed the Ronaldo name for his shirt.

Three years later the now world loved player Ronaldo de Assis Moreira (The Ronaldinho) joined the Brazilian squad. Finally Ronaldo was the oldest Ronaldo and claimed his actual name and started his journey in becoming one of the greatest players in the history of the sport. Ronaldinho also took the name from that tournament and cemented it in history as one of the greatest and most loved players.

FERNANDO TORRES – Scored in 7 separate competitions in one season

The man was an academy star in Spain with Atletico Madrid. He moved into the first team with ease scoring 75 goals in 174 appearances in La Liga with the club. He really made his name in world football with his record fee move to Liverpool. He blew the Premier league to pieces joining Robbie Fowler as the first Liverpool player to score more than 20 goals in his first season. He then went on to surpass all with the record for fastest 50 goals scored for the club.

Although all great records the record and fact we want to highlight came when playing for Chelsea. He had become the most expensive Spanish player in history at 50 million. Some people view Torres’s  time at Chelsea as a massive flop but it was here he score goals in 7 different tournaments securing his place in history. Below is a list of said tournaments

• FA Community Shield
• Premier League
• UEFA Champions League
• FIFA Club World Cup
• Capital One Cup
• FA Cup
• UEFA Europa League

MORE FACTS TO FOLLOW IN OUR WEEKEND ADDITION