Mexico beat Germany, Brazil tied with Switzerland, and Messi missed a penalty kick. This kind of talk can only mean one thing: The World Cup 2018 in Russia is now upon us and we couldn’t be more excited to wake up early and pass around some cold ones with the boys.
Thirty-two nations from around the globe are competing in 64 matches to determine which country has the best football team and — perhaps most importantly — the best fans. And hey, even though the United States didn’t qualify this year, it doesn’t mean we’re not participating in the shenanigans — soccer football fans from the U.S. bought the second highest number of tickets to go watch these matches in person.
With that being said, here is a look at the World Cup 2018 by the numbers.
From CNN:
6 feet 7 inches: Height of the tallest player, Croatian goalkeeper Lovre Kalinic.
5 feet 4 inches: Height of the shortest player, Saudi Arabian winger Yahya Al-Shehri.
19: Age of the youngest players at the 2018 World Cup.
4: Number of players born in the 1970s, including Essam El-Hadary (Egypt), Rafael Márquez (Mexico), Sergei Ignashevich (Russia), and Tim Cahill (Australia).
16: Record number of World Cup finals goals held by Germany’s Miroslav Klose.
184: Record number of caps by Egypt’s Ahmed Hassan, meaning he has appeared in more international matches than anyone else. Ever.
11: Number of players from Italy’s Juventus Football Club at World Cup 2018, even though the nation of Italy failed to qualify.
16: Number of players from Manchester City club.
736: Number of players overall.
186: Number of players who also played in the 2014 Brazil World Cup.
5: Most World Cups won (Brazil in 1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, and 2002).
1: Number of appearances at the World Cup by Iceland and Panama, who are making their debuts this year.
12: Number of new stadiums built for the event in Russia.
$14 billion: Amount spent bringing football’s biggest showpiece event to the world’s largest country.
From Radio Free Europe:
35,000: People who will work without pay (read: volunteers).
2,500,000-plus: Number of tickets sold ahead of the tournament.
88,825: Number of tickets sold in the United States, even though the U.S. team did not qualify.
From Reuters:
200,000: Number of fans visiting Russia.
From FIFA:
171: Number of goals in the 2015 World Cup, an average of 2.67 per game, making Brazil 2014 the joint-highest-scoring World Cup of all time with France 1998. Let’s hope for a similar outcome this year.
