Stats – Weird and Wonderful (31-40)
I bloody love a good random football fact. It’s what at least half of my brain space is taken up with on a daily basis. And so for this post I figured I would try to research and discover some of the most unusual facts, stats and stories from the footballing world.
Despite my best efforts to factcheck all these nuggets of information, I cannot guarantee their validity 100%, however if you want to correct me, why not send me a nicely worded tweet. And should you decide to share any of these with your friends down at the pub… remember nobody likes a know-it-all, as I’ve been told many times before.
Enjoy!
1. The ‘Borussia’ in Borussia Dortmund is Latin for Prussia, however the name was taken from Borussia Beer, made in a local brewery in Dortmund.
2. Speaking of the German side, they played the first 4 years as a club in blue and white striped shirts with a red sash design, before changing in 1913 to the infamous yellow and black we know and love today.
3. In a recent study, Anthony Martial is the 4th most popular footballer in China, behind Ronaldo, Beckham and Neymar, however he is ahead of Messi in 5th.
4. In the same study, it was found that Chelsea are the most followed Premier League side in China.
5. In 1979, a Scottish Cup game between Falkirk and Inverness Thistle was postponed 29 times due to bad weather. The game had been planned to take place on January the 6th, however actually occurred 47 days later on February 22nd. Falkirk won the fixture, however they were beaten 3 days later by Dundee.
6. The first ever live televised football match took place between Arsenal and … Arsenal. The first team played the reserve side in a friendly matchup in 1937 which was aired by the BBC.
7. Giuseppe Savoldi became the first £1 million footballer in 1975 after he moved from Bologna to Napoli for £1.2 million
8. Trevor Francis was the first British player to make a transfer of over £1 million, in 1979, when he moved from Birmingham City to Nottingham Forest, despite then manager Clough claiming it was only £999,999 so that the fee wouldn’t go to Francis’ head.
9. In 2012, the great midfielder Edgar Davids un-retired from football to take up a player-manager role at Barnet FC. He made 36 appearances for the club and bagged 1 goal in League 2. He left in his second season after being relegated to the Conference.
10. In 2009, Newell’s Old Boys gave their stadium an official name for the first time in 98 years, naming it after their legendary manager Marcelo Bielsa. The Estadio Marcelo Bielsa can hold up to 42,000 fans and has had some legendary atmospheres.
If you have any weird or wonderful football stats you want to share with the world (or the 2 readers of this blog), get in touch @NextGoalWinBlog on Twitter, or @NextGoalWin on Instagram.