With the South African World Cup just around the corner, let’s take a trip down memory lane.

1930 in Uruguay

Winners Uruguay

Runners Up Argentina

Golden Shoe Winner Gulillermo Stable (Arg) with 8 goals.

1934 in Italy

Winners Italy

Runners Up Czechoslovakia

Third Germany

Golden Shoe Winner Oldrich Nejedly (Ch) with 4 goals

1938 in France

Winners Italy

Runners Up Hungary

Third Brazil

Golden Shoe Winner Leonidas (Bra) with 8 goals

1950 in Brazil

Winners Uruguay

Runners Up Brazil

Third Sweden

Golden Shoot Winner Ademir (Bra) with 9 goals.

1954 in Switzerland

Winners German Federal Republic

Runners Up Hungary

Third Austria

Golden Shoe Winner Sandor Kocsis (Hun) with 11 goals.

1958 in Sweden

Winners Brazil

Runners Up Sweden

Third France

Golden Shoe Winner Just Fontaine (Fra) with 13 goals

1962 in Chile

Winners Brazil

Runners Up Czechoslovakia

Third Chile

Golden Shoe Winners Florian Albert (Hun), Valentin Ivanov (URS), Drazen Jerkovic (Yug), Leonel Sanchez (Chi), Vava (Bra) & Garrincha (Bra) all with 4 goals.

1966 in England

Winners England

Runners Up West Germany

Third Portugal

Golden Shoe Winner Eusebio (Por) with 9 goals.

1970 in Mexico

Winners Brazil

Runners Up Italy

Third West Germany

Golden Shoe Winner Gerd Muller (FRG) with 10 goals.

1974 in Germany

Winners West Germany

Runners Up Netherlands

Third Poland

Golden Shoe Winner Gregorz Lato (Pol) with 7 goals.

1978 in Argentina

Winners Argentina

Runners Up Netherlands

Third Brazil

Golden Shoe Winner Mario Kempes (Arg) with 6 goals.

1982 in Spain

Winners Italy

Runners Up West Germany

Third Poland

Golden Shoe Winner Paolo Rossi (Ita) with 6 goals.

1986 in Mexico

Winners Argentina

Runners Up West Germany

Third France

Golden Shoe Winner Gary Lineker (Eng) with 6 goals.

1990 in Italy

Winners West Germany

Runners Up Argentina

Third Italy

Golden Shoe Winner Salvatore Schillaci (Ita) with 6 goals.

1994 in America

Winners Brazil

Runners Up Italy

Third Sweden

Golden Shoe Winners Hristo Stoichkov (Bul) Oleg Salenko (Rus) with 6 goals.

1998 in France

Winners France

Runners Up Brazil

Third Croatia

Golden Shoe Winner Davor Suker (cro) with 6 goals.

2002 in Korea/Japan

Winners Brazil

Runners Up Germany

Third Turkey

Golden Shoe Winner Ronaldo (Bra) with 8 goals.

2006 in Germany

Winners Italy

Runners Up France

Third Germany

Golden Shoe Winner Miroslav Klose (Ger) with 5 goals.

Some more World Cup facts

Brazil is the only country to play in all World Cups for a total of 18. With every World cup, Brazil is always seen as one of the favorites and rightly so with 5 World cup trophies stored in their cabinets.

The unwanted record for the most runners up medallions goes to Germany with a total of 4.

An interesting fact, the most finals appearances goes to Brazil and Germany for a total of 7 each.

Still on Brazil, Pele, arguably one of, if not the best player ever, has the most winners medal with a total of 3.

The record for the most goals scored in the World Cup by an individual, you guessed it, Ronaldo (Brazil 1998-2006) with a total of 15 goals. Most goals in a single tournament goes to Just Fontaine (France) with an impressive 13 goals in 1958.

Most goals scored in a single match goes to a player by the name of Oleg Slanko (Russia) in 1994 against Cameroon with a tally of 5 goals.

The biggest crowd in the World Cup happened back in 1950 at the Maracana Stadium with an estimated 199,854 screaming South Americans.

Predictions for South Africa

Winners Spain

Runners Up Argentina

Third Place Portugal

Golden Shoe Winner Fernando Torres, Christiano Ronaldo with 6 goals.

What are your predictions?