Clemente A. Lisi - The FIFA World Cup: A History of the Planets Biggest Sporting Event

Clemente A. Lisi is a journalism professor at The Kings College in New York. His work has appeared at ABC News Digital, Goal.com, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, These Football Times, and USSoccer-Players.com.

I AM GRATEFUL FOR A GREAT NUMBER OF PEOPLE . N O BOOK CAN BE written without the support of others. This book would not be possible without the patience and backing of my wife Kate and children Grace and Mark. They make everything I do worth the effort.

I would also like to thank my parents Franco and Rachele for their love and helping to make me the person I am today.

Special thanks go to my colleagues at The Kings College in New York and the entire team at the McCandlish Phillips Journalism Institute. In particular, I want to thank Paul Glader for supporting my work and encouraging me to take on new projects.

A thank-you also goes to Terry Mattingly, who was always open to having a conversation about the U.S. national team and the growth of American soccer.

Extensive research went into putting this book together. A special thank-you to Lucas Drumond. His knowledge of Portuguese and love of soccer were an immense help, particularly when it came to providing information and photographs for this book from Brazils National Archives.

Much of the information on World Cups past would not have been possible for me to access if not for the many journalists who wrote newspaper articles and books on the subject in decades past. Journalism is indeed the first draft of history, and without those drafts, so many of the games and personalities that made this game so great would have been forgotten to history.

There are too many players to name here, but special thanks to those who sat for interviews and gave their time to tell their stories. I would like to highlight Carlos Alberto, Eusbio, Tefilo Cubillas, Bora Milutinovi, and Paolo Maldini. All of them provided wonderful insight into their playing days and World Cup experiences.

Finally, this project would not have been possible without the support and hard work of my editor, Christen Karniski, at Rowman & Littlefield. She championed this project, and without her it would not have become a reality. A big thank you also to editor Nicole Carty and proofreader Matt Seccombe. Their fact-checking skills and meticulous work made this a better book.

Most championships
3, Pel (Brazil, 1958, 1962, 1970)

Most appearances in a World Cup final
3, Cafu (Brazil, 1994, 1998, 2002)

Most different teams played
2, Luis Monti (Argentina, 1930; Italy, 1934), Robert Prosineki, Robert Jarni (Yugoslavia, 1990; Croatia, 1998, 2002)

Most tournament appearances
5, Antonio Carbajal (Mexico, 19501966), Lothar Matthus (Germany, 19821998), Rafael Mrquez (Mexico, 20022018)

Most goals scored
16, Miroslav Klose (Germany, 20022014)

Most goals scored in a single tournament
13, Just Fontaine (France, 1958)

Most goals scored in a single match
5, Oleg Salenko (Russia) versus Cameroon in 1994

Most hat tricks
2, Sndor Kocsis (Hungary, 1954), Just Fontaine (France 1958), Gerd Mller (West Germany, 1970), Gabriel Batistuta (Argentina, 1994 and 1998)

Most assists overall
10, Pel (Brazil, 19581970)

Most assists in a single tournament
6, Pel (Brazil, 1970)

Most matches played
25, Lothar Matthus (Germany, 19821998)

Most knockout games played
14, Miroslav Klose (Germany, 20022014)

Most minutes played
2,217, Paolo Maldini (Italy, 19902002)

Most shutouts
10, Peter Shilton (England, 19821990), Fabien Barthez (France, 19982006)

Most consecutive minutes without conceding a goal
517, Walter Zenga (Italy, 1990)

Most matches coached
25, Helmut Schn (West Germany, 19661978)

Most matches won
16, Helmut Schn (West Germany, 19661978)

Most tournaments won
2, Vittorio Pozzo (Italy, 19341938)

Most tournaments
6, Carlos Alberto Parreira (1982, 19901998, 2006, 2010)

Most nations coached
5, Bora Milutinovi (Mexico, 1986; Costa Rica, 1990; United States, 1994; Nigeria, 1998; China, 2002), Carlos Alberto Parreira (Kuwait, 1982; United Arab Emirates, 1990; Brazil, 1994, 2006; Saudi Arabia, 1998; South Africa, 2010)

Most cards all-time
7, Javier Mascherano (Argentina, 20062018)

Most yellow cards all-time
7, Javier Mascherano (Argentina, 20062018)

Most red cards all-time
2, Rigobert Song (Cameroon, 1994, 1998), Zinedine Zidane (France, 1998, 2006)

Most matches played
109, Germany and Brazil

Fewest matches played
1, Indonesia (as Dutch East Indies)

Most wins
73, Brazil

Most losses
27, Mexico

Most draws
21, Italy, England

Throughout this book I have attempted to document primary sources, which are sufficiently identified in the text. Quotes without attribution include news conferences and interviews that I conducted throughout the years. The purpose of this section is to identify the many sourcesbooks, magazines, websites, television broadcasts, studies, and archival materialused in the writing of this book.

Agnew, Paddy. Forza Italia: The Fall and Rise of Italian Football. London: Ebury Press, 2008.

Atherton, Martin. The Theft of the Jules Rimet Trophy: The Hidden History of the 1966 World Cup. London: Meyer & Meyer Sport, 2008.

Bayle, Emmanuel, and Patrick Clastres. Global Sport Leaders: A Biographical Analysis of International Sport Management. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018.

Bellos, Alex. Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life. London: Bloomsbury, 2014.