- Fri Nov 28, 2025 10:56 pm#9359
51. Cheltenham Town once forgot to enter the FA Cup. The Robins neglected to fill out the paperwork in 1974, the year in which a Kevin Keegan brace sank Newcastle in the final – and King Kev was unbelievably lucky that the mighty Cheltenham weren't available to halt him that season.
52. Boca Juniors adopted their kit colours from Sweden. Legend has it that in 1906, Boca Juniors played against Nottingham de Almagro. Both teams wore similar black and white kits, so they played a match to decide who would keep the colours. Boca lost and decided to adopt the colours of the flag of the first ship to sail into the port at La Boca. That ship turned out to be Swedish: and that's why Boca has worn blue and yellow ever since.
53. When Groningen were promoted in 1971, they had only conceded seven goals throughout the entire season. All seven goals were scored in seven different matches, yet Groningen didn't even win the league, finishing second that year. Lean.
54. Portsmouth maintain the longest tenure as FA Cup holders – seven years – despite winning it only once in that stretch. This occurred because they won the tournament in 1939, and all professional football ceased during World War II. Similarly, Italy possessed the World Cup trophy between 1934 and 1950 – a remarkable 16 years, or four tournaments – having only won it twice during that time.
55. In 1979, Perugia competed an unbeaten season – and still didn't win the league. The Griffins won 11 and drew 19, finishing second to Milan, who'd lost three times.
56. James Milner has played for managers born in 1933 and 1993. That's Bobby Robson and Fabian Hurzeler, respectively.
57. Gordon Strachan is the only man born before 1960 to score a Premier League hat-trick. The treble came against Blackburn Rovers in April 1993.
58. Arsenal are the only club to have gone unbeaten away from home in the Premier League twice. The Invincibles obviously managed the feat in 2003/04, but two years prior, Arsene Wenger's Double winners didn't lose on the road.
59. Patrick Kluivert and Ruud van Nistelrooy were born on the exact same day but experienced wildly divergent careers. Both born on July 1, 1976, Kluivert was a Champions League final goalscorer and winner in 1995 and had played for Milan and Barcelona before the turn of the millennium. By the time Van Nistelrooy joined Manchester United in 2001, Kluivert’s influence was beginning to wane, eventually moving to Newcastle United in 2004. RVN would later play for Real Madrid in the mid-2000s, while Big Pat had already returned to the Netherlands with PSV. Considering their shared age, their careers barely overlapped: Van Nistelrooy’s last international goal, for instance, came eight years after Kluivert's.
60. Carlo Ancelotti is the only man to have won all five of Europe's top five leagues as a coach. Don Carlo won Serie A with Milan, the Premier League with Chelsea, Ligue 1 with PSG, La Liga with Real Madrid and the Bundesliga with Bayern.
61. 10 French players from the Euro 2000 final went on to feature among the nation's top 12 most-capped players. That impressive list includes Lilian Thuram, Thierry Henry, Marcel Desailly, Zinedine Zidane, Patrick Vieira, Didier Deschamps, Laurent Blanc, Bixente Lizarazu, Sylvain Wiltord, and Fabian Barthez. Dynasty.
62. Samuel Eto’o won consecutive continental trebles in 2009 and 2010 with Barcelona and Inter Milan. Zlatan Ibrahimovic moved from Inter in 2009 to Barcelona in 2010 as part of the deal – a move in which Eto’o clearly secured the better outcome.
63. Gil Scott-Heron's father was Celtic's first black player. Gil Scott-Heron was a poet, author, musician, and activist, famously dubbed “the godfather of rap”; his work has been sampled by artists like Kanye West, Jamie xx, and Drake. His father, Gil Heron, was a Jamaican striker who represented the Bhoys in the 1950s.
64. In the qualification campaign for the 1998 World Cup, Australia did not lose a single match yet still failed to qualify for the tournament. The Socceroos were unstoppable in their qualifying group: they won all their group fixtures – the highlight being a 13-0 demolition of the Solomon Islands in which goalkeeper Mark Bosnich even scored – before being required to play the other group winner, who (surprise, surprise) were New Zealand. After dispatching their local (sort of) rivals 5-0 on aggregate, all the Aussies needed to do was beat Iran over two legs. They drew 2-2 at home and 1-1 away, sending the Iranians to the 1998 tournament on the away goals rule. How unlucky can you be?
65. The record for most goals in the FA Cup belongs to Kettering Town. They've scored 927 goals, ahead of Spurs in second place.
66. Ryan Giggs was never sent off while playing for Manchester United. That's an incredible 963 appearances over 24 years. He was, however, sent off once while playing for Wales.
67. Pep Guardiola has only ever signed one player, having coached him at another club: Thiago Alcantara. Guardiola also resigned Ilkay Gundogan in 2024 after the German spent a year at Barcelona.
68. When he signed for Sunderland, Stefan Schwarz had a clause in his contract that he wasn't allowed to go into space. Schwarz had shown an interest in space tourism, with the Black Cats wanting to avoid losing their star to a trip beyond the clouds, so inserted the bizarre loophole.
69. Kevin De Bruyne never won Premier League Player of the Month. Outrageous.
70. In 1941, Rapid Vienna were crowned German champions. In fact, that Bundesliga title meant that until Xabi Alonso's stint as coach, Rapid had actually won more German titles than Bayer Leverkusen.
71. The 1968 European Championship semi-final was settled by a coin toss. Italy defeated the Soviet Union via the toss and went on to win the final. Madness.
72. Hull City is the only team in the Football League with a name in which you cannot colour in any of the letters. This is because there are no fully closed letters in the words "Hull" and "City."
73. Widzew Lodz is the only club this century to successfully defend the title of second-division champions. They won the league in 2007/08 and were promoted to the Ekstraklasa but were immediately relegated due to their involvement in a corruption scandal. In the 2008/09 season, they won it again.
74. Prior to the Champions League rebrand, the only player to have won European Cup winners’ medals with two different English clubs was… Jimmy Rimmer. Rimmer was injured just nine minutes into the 1982 final with Aston Villa and had to be replaced by Nigel Spink as the club defeated Bayern Munich – while as a 20-year-old, he was on the bench for Manchester United during their victory in 1968.
75. In 2003, Franz Beckenbauer threatened the German league with moving Bayern Munich to Italy. The Bayern president issued the threat in response to Bundesliga administrators accusing his club of financial wrongdoing. “If they continue to nag us, we will apply to play in the Italian league,” Becks declared. “Juventus, Milan and Roma are fantastic teams and would make great opponents. Then we’ll see how the Bundesliga gets on without us.” Borussia Dortmund are still heartbroken it never happened.
52. Boca Juniors adopted their kit colours from Sweden. Legend has it that in 1906, Boca Juniors played against Nottingham de Almagro. Both teams wore similar black and white kits, so they played a match to decide who would keep the colours. Boca lost and decided to adopt the colours of the flag of the first ship to sail into the port at La Boca. That ship turned out to be Swedish: and that's why Boca has worn blue and yellow ever since.
53. When Groningen were promoted in 1971, they had only conceded seven goals throughout the entire season. All seven goals were scored in seven different matches, yet Groningen didn't even win the league, finishing second that year. Lean.
54. Portsmouth maintain the longest tenure as FA Cup holders – seven years – despite winning it only once in that stretch. This occurred because they won the tournament in 1939, and all professional football ceased during World War II. Similarly, Italy possessed the World Cup trophy between 1934 and 1950 – a remarkable 16 years, or four tournaments – having only won it twice during that time.
55. In 1979, Perugia competed an unbeaten season – and still didn't win the league. The Griffins won 11 and drew 19, finishing second to Milan, who'd lost three times.
56. James Milner has played for managers born in 1933 and 1993. That's Bobby Robson and Fabian Hurzeler, respectively.
57. Gordon Strachan is the only man born before 1960 to score a Premier League hat-trick. The treble came against Blackburn Rovers in April 1993.
58. Arsenal are the only club to have gone unbeaten away from home in the Premier League twice. The Invincibles obviously managed the feat in 2003/04, but two years prior, Arsene Wenger's Double winners didn't lose on the road.
59. Patrick Kluivert and Ruud van Nistelrooy were born on the exact same day but experienced wildly divergent careers. Both born on July 1, 1976, Kluivert was a Champions League final goalscorer and winner in 1995 and had played for Milan and Barcelona before the turn of the millennium. By the time Van Nistelrooy joined Manchester United in 2001, Kluivert’s influence was beginning to wane, eventually moving to Newcastle United in 2004. RVN would later play for Real Madrid in the mid-2000s, while Big Pat had already returned to the Netherlands with PSV. Considering their shared age, their careers barely overlapped: Van Nistelrooy’s last international goal, for instance, came eight years after Kluivert's.
60. Carlo Ancelotti is the only man to have won all five of Europe's top five leagues as a coach. Don Carlo won Serie A with Milan, the Premier League with Chelsea, Ligue 1 with PSG, La Liga with Real Madrid and the Bundesliga with Bayern.
61. 10 French players from the Euro 2000 final went on to feature among the nation's top 12 most-capped players. That impressive list includes Lilian Thuram, Thierry Henry, Marcel Desailly, Zinedine Zidane, Patrick Vieira, Didier Deschamps, Laurent Blanc, Bixente Lizarazu, Sylvain Wiltord, and Fabian Barthez. Dynasty.
62. Samuel Eto’o won consecutive continental trebles in 2009 and 2010 with Barcelona and Inter Milan. Zlatan Ibrahimovic moved from Inter in 2009 to Barcelona in 2010 as part of the deal – a move in which Eto’o clearly secured the better outcome.
63. Gil Scott-Heron's father was Celtic's first black player. Gil Scott-Heron was a poet, author, musician, and activist, famously dubbed “the godfather of rap”; his work has been sampled by artists like Kanye West, Jamie xx, and Drake. His father, Gil Heron, was a Jamaican striker who represented the Bhoys in the 1950s.
64. In the qualification campaign for the 1998 World Cup, Australia did not lose a single match yet still failed to qualify for the tournament. The Socceroos were unstoppable in their qualifying group: they won all their group fixtures – the highlight being a 13-0 demolition of the Solomon Islands in which goalkeeper Mark Bosnich even scored – before being required to play the other group winner, who (surprise, surprise) were New Zealand. After dispatching their local (sort of) rivals 5-0 on aggregate, all the Aussies needed to do was beat Iran over two legs. They drew 2-2 at home and 1-1 away, sending the Iranians to the 1998 tournament on the away goals rule. How unlucky can you be?
65. The record for most goals in the FA Cup belongs to Kettering Town. They've scored 927 goals, ahead of Spurs in second place.
66. Ryan Giggs was never sent off while playing for Manchester United. That's an incredible 963 appearances over 24 years. He was, however, sent off once while playing for Wales.
67. Pep Guardiola has only ever signed one player, having coached him at another club: Thiago Alcantara. Guardiola also resigned Ilkay Gundogan in 2024 after the German spent a year at Barcelona.
68. When he signed for Sunderland, Stefan Schwarz had a clause in his contract that he wasn't allowed to go into space. Schwarz had shown an interest in space tourism, with the Black Cats wanting to avoid losing their star to a trip beyond the clouds, so inserted the bizarre loophole.
69. Kevin De Bruyne never won Premier League Player of the Month. Outrageous.
70. In 1941, Rapid Vienna were crowned German champions. In fact, that Bundesliga title meant that until Xabi Alonso's stint as coach, Rapid had actually won more German titles than Bayer Leverkusen.
71. The 1968 European Championship semi-final was settled by a coin toss. Italy defeated the Soviet Union via the toss and went on to win the final. Madness.
72. Hull City is the only team in the Football League with a name in which you cannot colour in any of the letters. This is because there are no fully closed letters in the words "Hull" and "City."
73. Widzew Lodz is the only club this century to successfully defend the title of second-division champions. They won the league in 2007/08 and were promoted to the Ekstraklasa but were immediately relegated due to their involvement in a corruption scandal. In the 2008/09 season, they won it again.
74. Prior to the Champions League rebrand, the only player to have won European Cup winners’ medals with two different English clubs was… Jimmy Rimmer. Rimmer was injured just nine minutes into the 1982 final with Aston Villa and had to be replaced by Nigel Spink as the club defeated Bayern Munich – while as a 20-year-old, he was on the bench for Manchester United during their victory in 1968.
75. In 2003, Franz Beckenbauer threatened the German league with moving Bayern Munich to Italy. The Bayern president issued the threat in response to Bundesliga administrators accusing his club of financial wrongdoing. “If they continue to nag us, we will apply to play in the Italian league,” Becks declared. “Juventus, Milan and Roma are fantastic teams and would make great opponents. Then we’ll see how the Bundesliga gets on without us.” Borussia Dortmund are still heartbroken it never happened.
- By bdchakriDesk