One question for each FIFA World Cup

The Egyptian squad were booked onto the same cross-Atlantic voyage as some of the European teams, and should have embarked at Barcelona. Unfortunately their voyage from Alexandria was held up by a storm preventing them crossing the Mediterranean to Barcelona for several days. When they finally arrived in Barcelona, they were told their ship had left them behind and the Egyptian team were unable to find any alternative that would make it to Montevideo in time for the tournament!

Monti is the only footballer in history to have played in two World Cup finals for two different countries!

The country was officially known as Dutch East Indies at the time.

The final round was a round-robin for the four group winners: Brazil, Spain, Sweden and Uruguay. The last scheduled fixture coincidentally ended up as a winner-takes-all between Brazil and Uruguay anyway.

The documentary was eventually revealed to be a hoax

The dog evaded capture for a long time and ran rings around the players trying to chase it. Eventually Jimmy Greaves managed to gain its trust by getting on all fours and also acting like a dog, much to Garrincha's amusement. As Greaves waited for assistance, holding the dog tightly to prevent it escaping again, the dog relieved itself over the striker's shirt. There was no replacement shirt Greaves could change into and had to play the rest of match in a dogpiss drenched kit, although he said this did at least mean defenders stopped marking him as closely! In a heart-warming coda, when Garrincha learned that the dog didn't seem to have an owner, the Brazil star adopted the cheeky hound!

The thief or thieves have never been identified, but Pickles became a national hero for his discovery. Brazil earned the right to keep the original Jules Rimet Trophy in perpetuity when they became the first country to win the tournament for a third time in 1970. Sadly, the trophy was stolen from its permanent exhibit in Rio de Janeiro in the 80s and has never been found.

A coup with Kissinger's fingerprints all over it had recently installed a right-wing leader more pliable to American demands. A few years later and the World Cup was a perfect sports washing opportunity that would maintain American interests. Therefore, Kissinger has a means and a motive to do such a thing. We'll never know for sure what happened, but Argentina needed to win by five or six to progress and they got exactly what they needed with their opponents playing like shadows of the footballers they had been a few days earlier...

With West Germany leading 1-0 both teams would progress and so let the clock run down without trying to score again!

The goal is now known simply as the Hand of God due to Maradona handling the ball past England's goalkeeper which the referee failed to see and allowed the goal to stand. All goals scored by way of a handball missed by the ref since are usually referred to as the offending player's Hand of God. Whatever you think of the gamesmanship, you have to admit it's an iconic turn of phrase and I'm impressed he expressed himself so poetically after having just played a football match in which he had starred. I doubt I'd have come out with anything as profound!

In 2020, Ronaldo revealed he had suffered a seizure and spent three hours in hospital before the match on the day of the final.

Keane had many problems with many people but the high standards he was used to under Alex Ferguson at Man United were not being met which in turn made him feel like the manager and the FA weren't taking anything seriously and the amateurism was going to humiliate the country. So naturally he leaked his grievances to tabloid newspapers, screamed a ten minute tirade at his manager and dramatically exiled himself from the squad because that is obviously the sensible and mature way to ensure you maintain your nation's dignity...

Referee Graham Poll showed Simunic his second yellow in the final minute of normal time but forgot to send the player off. Three minutes later, Simunic committed another foul and became the only player in the history of elite football to receive a third yellow card, although Poll did remember to send him off this time!

The US goalkeeper made an impressive number of acrobatic goal-denying saves without seeming to break a sweat, reminding people of a scene from The Matrix where Neo simply raises his hand to stop bullets in mid-air.

Initially Modric had given testimony on corruption he had witnessed and was helping to dismantle the rotten systems. After cases against prominent figures at the top of Croatian FA's hierarchy went to trial, Modric began to claim he could no longer remember the things he'd previously described and there was evidence of tax fraud and complicity in preventing people uncovering the corruption. Presumably feeling very betrayed by their national hero, Croatian people wanted to see Modric face consequences for this betrayal. He was charged with perjury (lying under oath in court) in May and didn't step foot in his homeland before going to the World Cup. Croatia's incredible run to the final and Modric's contribution to that recognised by being named player of the tournament had lifted the nation so much, the appetite to punish him evaporated and the case was thrown out of court in October of that year.

Aguerd scored an own goal in the final group match against Canada, which meant that until they were knocked out by France, the only team able to score against Morocco was in fact... Morocco!