GIVEMESPORT looks at 10 World Cup records that may never be broken, featuring Pele, Indonesia and Maracana Stadium.
Highlights
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Youngest scorer in a World Cup final: Pele at 17 years & 248 days
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Most yellow cards in a World Cup match: Josip Simunic with 3
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Fewest matches by a country: Indonesia with only 1
For the vast majority of footballers, there is no finer competition than the World Cup. Over the years, the competition has become legendary, with countless exploits and at least as many stories to tell.
Today, it is a benchmark and a dream for most footballers. One of the things that makes it so special, and which also contributes to its legend, is undoubtedly the fact that it is only held once every four years. No one wants to miss it, although many are forced to. But for all the participants, taking part in a World Cup is synonymous with a turning point in their careers.
They, along with their coaches and teams, have all played their part in building the reputation of the world tournament. While some have been largely forgotten, others have gone down in history for their achievements. In this article, GIVEMESPORT takes a look back at nine of the many records set at the World Cup that may never be broken.
| Rank | Player, coach, team or stadium | Record | Amount | Year |
| 1 | Josip Simunic | Most yellow cards received in a match | 3 | 2006 |
| 2 | Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) | Fewest matches played by a country in a World Cup | 1 | 1938 |
| 3 | Just Fontaine | Most goals in a single World Cup tournament | 13 | 1958 |
| 4 | Pele | Youngest scorer in a final | 17 years and 248 days | 1958 |
| 5 | Oleg Salenko | Most goals scored in one match | 5 | 1994 |
| 6 | Maracana Stadium | Highest attendance at a World Cup match | 173,850 | 1950 |
| 7 | Essam El Hadary | Oldest player to appear in a World Cup match | 45 years and 161 days | 2018 |
| 8 | Ernst Wilimowski | Most goals scored during a defeat | 4 | 1938 |
| 9 | Luis Alberto Parreira | Most tournaments as coach | 6 | 1982, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2006, 2010 |
| 10 | Juan Jose Tramutola | Youngest coach to manage a World Cup side | 27 years and 267 days | 1930 |
10 Youngest coach to manage a World Cup side
Juan Jose Tramutola – 27 years and 267 days
13 teams took part in the first ever World Cup in 1930. In Group A, seeded Argentina faced France, Mexico and Chile. On the 15th of July, the Albiceleste made their debut against Les Bleus, led by the duo of Raoul Caudron and Jean Rigal.
Opposite them, a young coach, Juan Jose Tramutola, led the South American team. That day, at the age of 27 years and 267 days, he became the youngest coach in history to take charge of a World Cup. A record he still holds today, almost a century later.
| Record | Youngest coach to manage a World Cup match |
| Amount | 27 years and 267 days |
| Date | 15th of July 1930 |
| Match | Argentina vs France |
9 Most tournaments as coach
Carlos Alberto Parreira – 6
28 years. That is the number of years between the first and last World Cups that Carlos Alberto Parreira has coached. Kuwait in 1982, United Arab Emirates in 1990, Brazil in 1994 and 2006, Saudi Arabia in 1998 and South Africa in 2010: no-one has ever coached in so many editions of the competition.
In total, the 1994 world champion with the Auriverde will have coached 23 matches in the tournament (10 wins, 4 draws, 9 defeats) – the record for the number of matches coached by a coach in a World Cup is held by Helmut Schon (25 appearances). However, the Brazilian is not the only one to have coached 5 different nations in the World Cup. Bora Milutinovic (Mexico, Costa Rica, USA, Nigeria and China) can also boast this.
| Record | Most tournaments as coach |
| Amount | 6 |
| Years | 1982 (Kuwait), 1990 (United Arab Emirates), 1994 (Brazil), 1998 (Saudi Arabia), 2006 (Brazil), 2010 (South Africa) |
Related GIVEMESPORT looks at the 10 managers with the most World Cup appearances, featuring Zagallo, Hiddink and Schon.
8 Most goals scored in a lost match
Ernst Wilimowski – 4
Few players have scored a quadruple in a match and still lost. Ernst Wilimowski was one of those players in 1938. When Poland faced Brazil in the Round of 16 of the third World Cup in history, the Ruch Chorzow striker scored four goals, but was unable to prevent his team losing, conceding six in the competition’s highest-scoring match (6-5).
For Wilimowski, who will have scored a total of 1,077 goals – in 688 games – over the course of his career, these were both the first and last goals he scored in the World Cup, in his one and only appearance in the tournament.
| Record | Most goals scored in a lost match |
| Amount | 4 |
| Date | 5th of June 1938 |
| Match | Brazil vs Poland |
7 Oldest player to appear in a World Cup match
Essam El Hadary – 45 years and 161 days
When Roger Milla scored against Colombia in the Round of 16 at the 1990 World Cup, he became, at the age of 38 years and 34 days, the oldest goalscorer in the history of the competition – a record he still holds. And yet he still seems a mere junior compared to the age at which some of his colleagues have trodden a World Cup pitch.
This is particularly true of Essam El Hadary, the oldest player in history to have played in a World Cup. In 2018, at the age of 45 years and 161 days, the legendary Egyptian goalkeeper celebrated his 159th and final cap with the Pharaohs, in a two goals to one defeat by Saudi Arabia.
| Record | Oldest player to appear in a World Cup match |
| Amount | 45 years and 161 days |
| Date | 25th of June 2018 |
| Match | Saudi Arabia vs Egypt |
6 Highest attendance at a World Cup match
Maracana Stadium – 173,850
In a ranking of the world’s most legendary stadiums, Rio de Janeiro’s Maracana would certainly occupy one of the highest places. Inaugurated in 1950, the Carioca arena had a capacity of 220,000 when it opened, including standing room only.
Brazil was chosen to host the 1950 World Cup, and its national team reached the final of the tournament, where it met Uruguay, winners of the first edition 20 years earlier. The match was attended by 199,854 unofficial spectators and 173,850 official supporters. In any case, it was a record that is unlikely to be broken any time soon, given that no stadium today has the capacity to accommodate such a crowd.
| Record | Highest attendance at a World Cup match |
| Amount | 173,850 |
| Date | 16th of July 1950 |
| Match | Brazil vs Uruguay |
5 Most goals scored in one match
Oleg Salenko – 5
Oleg Salenko could have been just another anonymous footballer, but his performance on the 28th of June 1994 will forever go down in World Cup history. Having become a Russian international after representing the Soviet Union (1989-1991) and Ukraine (1992), the centre-forward travelled to the United States for the first – and only – World Cup of his career.
His first goal came against Sweden, but it was in the game against Cameroon that the former Dynamo Kiev player wrote his name into the tournament record books. In the space of 60 minutes, Salenko scored a quintuple to help ‘Sbornaja’ beat the Indomitable Lions. Before him, no-one had ever managed to score five times; after him, no-one has yet managed such a feat.
| Record | Most goals scored in one match |
| Amount | 5 |
| Date | 29th of June 1994 |
| Match | Russia vs Cameroon |
4 Youngest scorer in a final
Pele – 17 years and 248 days
On the 15th of July 2018, the date of the Russian World Cup final, Kylian Mbappe was just 19 years and 204 days old. And yet that didn’t stop him from scoring France’s fourth goal and – in a big way – helping Les Bleus win their second world star. Quite impressive! However, the French striker did not go down in history as the youngest ever goalscorer in a FIFA World Cup final.
In fact, you had to go back 60 years, to 1958, to find the man who had set that record. And who else but Pele could have done it? Against hosts Sweden, the ‘King’ scored twice (his fifth and sixth goals in the competition) to help Brazil win the first ever FIFA World Cup. He was 17 years and 248 days old at the time.
| Record | Youngest scorer in a final |
| Amount | 17 years and 248 days |
| Date | 29th of June 1958 |
| Match | Brazil vs Sweden |
3 Most goals in a single World Cup tournament
Just Fontaine – 13
A performance that, if it is one day equalled or even surpassed, will certainly not have the same taste as that achieved by Just Fontaine in 1958 – not least because of the changes in the World Cup format. In Sweden, the French striker, then playing for Stade de Reims, set a record that he has managed to hold to this day.
A four-goal haul against West Germany, a hat-trick against Paraguay, doubles against Yugoslavia and Northern Ireland and goals against Scotland and Brazil: in six matches, the man who finished third in the 1958 Ballon d’Or rankings scored 13 goals. The fourth-highest scorer in the history of the World Cup, he played 18 fewer games than Miroslav Klose, the all-time top scorer with 16 goals.
| Record | Most goals in a single World Cup tournament |
| Amount | 13 |
| Year | 1958 |
| Opponents | Paraguay, Yugoslavia, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Brazil |
2 Fewest matches played by a country in a World Cup
Indonesia – 1
It is a record that the World Cup format will never allow to be beaten – unless it is revised and returned to its earliest editions. Indonesia – then known as the Dutch East Indies – were the only Asian representatives at the 1938 edition, and they faced Hungary in the first round of the competition.
They were swept aside by a score of six goals to nil, and were immediately eliminated in their first and only match of the tournament. While the 1942 World Cup was cancelled because of the Second World War, the little team never again had the opportunity to take part in a World Cup until it gained independence in 1949.
| Record | Fewest matches played by a country in a World Cup |
| Amount | 1 |
| Date | 5th of June 1938 |
| Match | Hungary vs Dutch East Indies |
1 Most yellow cards received in a match
Josip Simunic – 3
It’s a record that, thanks to modern technology, should never be broken. In 2006, when Croatia faced Australia in a match that ended 2-2, Josip Simunic was shown not one, not two, but three yellow cards in the course of a single match. Cautioned for the first time on the hour mark, the central defender received his second caution at the very end of the match.
But just as everyone was expecting Graham Poll to send him back to the dressing room, it was not to be. Simunic was booked for the third time a few minutes later, this time with a red card. It was an absurd situation that Poll would justify in his autobiography published a few years later, explaining that he may have been misled by the Australian accent of the Cambera-born ‘Vatreni’ defender.
| Most yellow cards received in a match |
| 3 |
| Croatia vs Australia |
