On June 11 and for the first time ever, the world cup will be held on African soil. Can you believe it, the world cup is here. 32 nations competing for the gold while 27 billion hold their breath and wait for the drama to unfold.

I’ll try and avoid the rehashed stuff all the other soccer sites are talking about.

Did you know, the original World Cup was made from gold-plated sterling silver? Legend has it that FIFA Vice President Ottorino Barassi put the trophy in a shoebox and placed it under his bed to hide it from the Germans troops during World War 2.

Fast forward two decades later and the trophy went missing in 1966. The scene was England and to the rescue came a dog named Pickles who found the gold under a hedge.

Unfortunately the original World Cup was stolen again in 1983 and never recovered.

The current trophy is held by the winners until the next tournament and then replaced by a gold plated replica.

The World Cup Tournament

A record 204 Nations competed for 32 spots. The only country guaranteed a spot was South Africa the host nation.

The World is represented as follows, 13 spots were allocated to Europe, 5 to Africa, 4 to South America and Asia and 4 to North, Central America and the Caribbean area had 3.

I know what you’re thinking, that’s only 29. South Africa makes it 30 and the other 2 nations were determined by inter-zone play offs.

World Cup Statistics and Numbers

Discipline and order will be maintained by 41,000 police officers from all over the world.

15,000 Volunteers will be working, or should I say helping.

The oldest player to play in the World Cup was Cameroon’s Roger Milla at the young age of 42 years and 39 days.

The fastest goal ever scored goes to Turkey’s Hakan Sukur in 2002 against Korea after just 11 seconds.

Brazil have won the World Cup a record 5 times.

140 goals were scored in 26 matches during the 1954 World Cup with an average of 5.4 goals per match.

Croatian Josip Simunic (some would argue Australian) was given 3 yellow cards in the 2006 match against Australia before finally being sent off.

Frenchman Zinedine Zidane’s 2 red cards, 4 yellow cards in 3 World Cups is a penalty record. Not to mention the best head butt the tournament has ever seen.

Last but not least, 3 million tickets are available for the 64 matches.

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?

If you asked a handful of soccer fans to describe Diego Maradona what would they say?

Depending on their age and nationality, the answers would differ, that’s for sure. With the World Cup just around the corner I wonder what Diego Maradona is cooking.

My memories of Diego begin in Mexico, the 1986 World Cup where Maradona, lets face it, won the cup with his own boots and hand.

Then I remember the days in Italy where he put Napoli on the map. A small club from Naples all of a sudden became the heavy weights of European Soccer. Anyone my age would remember the sky blue jumpers with the Mars logo on the front.

Now we arrive in Rome 1990 for the Italia World Cup. Maradona has become a God in Italy but is now public enemy number one as he stands in the way of the Azzurri. As fate would have it, he scores a decisive penalty and Italy is bundled out of the world cup.

What I remember the most from that world cup is Maradona crying as they lost the final to Germany. A German by the name of Jurgen Klinsmann stole the cup from his grasp when he conned the referee into a penalty and a red card.

If you look back at the footage, you can’t help think the song “Don’t cry for me Argentina” was written for that very moment.

After the world cup, angry Italians demanded revenge and decided to crucify him for cocaine usage. Did the Italians know this before the world cup? If you think they didn’t, then you should be also expecting the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny and Father Christmas to pay you a visit this year.

Maradona banished into the wilderness only to make the news by shooting a cameraman in the face with an air rifle.

In preparation for USA 94, he hired the services of, wait for it, Ben Johnson the disgraced Canadian drug cheat. Do you remember what happened after the first game against Greece? That’s right, the nurse grabbed him by the hand and led him to the rest rooms for a drug test. I still can picture his face, laughing and smiling at the nurse as if to say, do you know who I am?

What followed after that was a serious cocaine addiction that nearly killed him on several occasions. He also battled with his weight and at times looked like a bloated beast that escaped from the depths of hell.

After several failed attempts in rehab, Maradona found comfort in his long time friend Fidel Castro and beat the habit.

When ageing Alfio Basile quit the national job, Maradona was given the nod to everyone’s surprise.

Argentina just qualified for the World Cup and Maradona took aim at the media after being called everything under the sun.

Translated he said,

“I’m sorry ladies for my words and keep on sucking it. I’m either white or black, but I will never be grey in my life, right? You treated me like you did, now keep on sucking dicks…”

“I’m grateful to my players and to the Argentinian people, I thank no one but them. The rest, keep on sucking dicks. You too Pasman, right, you also have a dick inside you.”

For those that have been living under a rock, go to YouTube and type in “Maradona Press Conference” and watch it for yourself.

After being harassed by the media and being criticized for his team selection and coaching abilities, Maradona had this to say,

“I know how to win the World Cup. You have to put all your heart in it, you’ve got to give your life”.

When all is said and done, Maradona is a survivor and his love for Argentina can never be questioned. Throw Lionel Messi into the mix and you just never know.

Lets see what Maradona has installed for us in South Africa.