Like all sports, numbers and statistics are an integral part of the world of football, which is preparing for the start of the World Cup in Qatar, which starts Sunday until December 18th.
The website of the International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA) published some remarkable numbers on the eve of the start of the finals of the twenty-second edition of the World Cup.
203
It is the length of Dutch goalkeeper Andres Nobert, who will be the tallest player participating in the Qatar World Cup, ahead of his counterparts, Serbian goalkeepers Vania Milinkovic-Savic (202) and Belgian Thibaut Courtois (200), while Australian defender Harry Sutar (198) leads the list of the tallest field players.
When Courtois and Belgium meet Morocco in the World Cup in the second round of Group F competitions, the Spanish Real Madrid goalkeeper will be facing midfielder Elias Al-Shaer (164), so that the height difference between them is 36 centimeters. And the largest difference in height during the World Cup in the current century remains 39 centimeters between Montenegrin giant Nikola Djegic and Ivory Coast Bakari Koné during the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
163
The English leagues will be represented in the World Cup in Qatar by 163 out of 831 players participating in the finals, or a total of 19.6 percent of the total number, which is nearly double the number of representatives of the second league after it, which is the Spanish one with 86 players. The Premier League was also represented in Russia 2018 by the largest number (124 out of 736, or a total of 16.9 percent).
117
Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo scored 117 goals for his country, more than the total scored by all 26 players in the squads of the 15 teams participating in the finals: Australia, Cameroon, Ecuador, Ghana, Japan, South Korea, Morocco, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia. , Spain, Tunisia, the United States and Wales.
40
Mexican goalkeeper Alfredo Talavera will surpass the 40-year-old barrier by 63 days when the finals start, making him the oldest player in the World Cup in Qatar. And in the event that he gets his meager opportunity to participate in the presence of the other veteran Guillermo Ochoa (37 years), Talavera will become the eighth forty-year-old player to participate in the finals after his Italian counterparts Dino Zoff, Northern Irishman Pat Jennings, English Peter Chilton, Tunisian Ali Bumenigl, Colombian Fred Mondragon, Egyptian Essam El-Hadary and Cameroonian striker Roger Milla.
And after Talavera in terms of age in the Qatari finals, and at the thirty-ninth, each of the Canadian midfielder Atiba Hutchinson, the heart of the Portuguese defense Pepe, the Japanese goalkeeper Eiji Kawashima, the Brazilian right-back Danny Alves and the Netherlands goalkeeper Rimko Pasvir Tualia in terms of age order.
Mila remains the oldest field player in the history of the finals, as he was 42 years, one month and 8 days old during his last appearance in the 1994 World Cup in the United States.
In Qatar, Hutchinson will be the oldest outfield player, born on February 8, 1983, 18 days ahead of Pepe.
26
Hosts Qatar and neighboring Saudi Arabia will be the only two countries to have professional players together in the domestic league. England was the only team to play with local players in the 2018 World Cup in Russia, but it gave up this advantage in the current World Cup as a result of the inclusion of Borussia Dortmund midfielder Jude Bellingham in coach Gareth Southgate’s squad.
18
Yusuf Moukoko will be the youngest player in the Qatar World Cup, as the German striker celebrates his eighteenth birthday at the opening of the finals on Sunday, surpassing Danish Christian Eriksen on the list of the youngest players in the European continent in the finals, behind Northern Ireland’s Norman Whiteside, who was 17 years and 41 days old when he faced Yugoslavia. In the World Cup Spain 1982.
Mokoko will be among six 18-year-old players during this edition, along with Australian Garang Cole, Spaniard Gavi, Costa Rican Jewison Bennett, Moroccan Bilal Al Khanous, and Ghanaian Isaac Abdul Fatao. At the age of 19 years and 5 months, Australian winger Daniel Arzani was the youngest player in the 2018 Russia Finals.
17
Bayern Munich will be the club most represented in the finals with 17 players, as its players are distributed among the teams of Cameroon, Canada, Croatia, France, Morocco, the Netherlands, Senegal, and Germany, of course. It is followed by Barcelona, Spain, and Manchester City, England, with 16 players each.
10
France is represented in the Qatar Finals by 10 players who were in the 2018 squad that won the title at the expense of Croatia, and they are goalkeepers Hugo Lloris, Steve Mandanda and Alphonse Areola, in addition to Osman Dembele, Olivier Giroud, Antoine Griezmann, Lucas Hernandez, Kylian Mbappe, Benjamin Pavard and Raphael Varane. . In 2014, Spain coach Vicente Del Bosque took with him 16 players from the squad that won the title four years earlier, while Germany was represented four years ago by nine players from the 2014 Champions squad.
10
German Thomas Muller is the most scoring player in the World Cup among the participants in the current edition with ten goals, followed by Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo (7), Uruguayan Luis Soares (7), English Harry Kane (6), Argentine Lionel Messi (6) and Brazilian Neymar ( 6).
Mueller has the opportunity to advance in the list of the best scorers in the finals, as only four goals separate him from the third place occupied by his compatriot, the late “gunner” Gerd Mueller, while his other compatriot Miroslav Klose leads the list with 16 in front of the phenomenon of Brazil Ronaldo (15).
5
Four players will compete in the World Cup finals for the fifth time in their career, and they are the Mexicans Andres Guardado and the goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa, the Argentine Lionel Messi and the Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo, to equal the achievement of the other Mexicans goalkeeper Antonio Carvajal and Rafael Marques, the Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon and the German Lothar Matthaus.