The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament has been held every four years since the inaugural tournament in 1930, except in 1942 and 1946 when it was not held because of the Second World War. The reigning champions are Argentina, who won their third title at the 2022 tournament.
Total Football is a tactical system in association football in which any outfield player can take over the role of any other player in a team. Although Dutch club Ajax and the Netherlands national football team are generally credited with creating this system during the 1970s, there were other sides who had played a similar style before, such as the Austrian Wunderteam of the 1930s, English club Sunderland in the mid-1930s, the Argentine side "La Maquina" of River Plate in the 1940s, the Golden Team of Hungary in the 1950s, English team Burnley in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and Brazilian side Santos in the 1960s.
Club Athletico Paranaense is a Brazilian football team from the city of Curitiba, capital city of the Brazilian state of Paraná, founded on March 26, 1924. The team won the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, Brazil's top football division, in 2001, the Copa Sudamericana in 2018 and 2021, and the Copa do Brasil in 2019.
Unione Sportiva Lecce, commonly referred to as Lecce, is an Italian football club based in Lecce, Apulia. The club play in Serie A in the 2022–23 season, the top level of the Italian football pyramid, having been promoted from Serie B. Lecce plays its home games at Stadio Via del Mare, which has a capacity of 31,533 spectators.
The FIFA Club World Cup is an international men's association football competition organised by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The competition was first contested in 2000 as the FIFA Club World Championship. It was not held from 2001 to 2004 due to a combination of factors in the cancelled 2001 tournament, most importantly the collapse of FIFA's marketing partner International Sport and Leisure (ISL), but since 2005 it has been held every year, and has been hosted by Brazil, Japan, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Qatar. Views differ as to the cup's prestige: it struggles to attract interest in most of Europe, and is the object of heated debate in South America.
Alexandro Silva de Sousa, known as Dudu Cearense or simply Dudu, is a Brazilian former professional footballer.
Iomar do Nascimento, known as Mazinho, is a Brazilian football manager and former player. Mazinho played primarily as a defensive midfielder and a full-back in his professional playing career. As a manager, he had a short spell at Greek club Aris in 2009.
Marco Tardelli is an Italian former football player and manager. At club level, he played as a midfielder for several Italian clubs; he began his career with Pisa, and later played for Como, Juventus, and Internazionale, before retiring with Swiss club St. Gallen. He enjoyed a highly successful career with Juventus, winning five league titles, as well as multiple Coppa Italia titles, and four major UEFA competitions, becoming one of the first three players ever to win all three major UEFA club competitions, along with Italy and Juventus teammates Antonio Cabrini and Gaetano Scirea.
Magyar Testgyakorlók Köre Budapest Futball Club or shortly MTK is a Hungarian football club based in Józsefváros, Budapest. The team currently plays in the Nemzeti Bajnokság II. The club's colours are blue and white. As one of the most successful Hungarian football clubs, MTK has won the Hungarian League 23 times and the Hungarian Cup 12 times. The club has also won the Hungarian Super Cup twice. In 1955, as Vörös Lobogó SE, they became the first Hungarian team to play in the European Cup and in 1964 they finished as runners-up in the European Cup Winners' Cup after losing to Sporting Clube de Portugal in the final. The club founded the Sándor Károly Football Academy in 2001. The Academy also has a partnership agreement with English club Liverpool.
Óscar Pérez Rojas is a Mexican former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Nicknamed "El Conejo", he is regarded as one of the best goalkeepers in Mexican football history.
Jonathan Santana Gehre is an Argentina-born Paraguayan former football midfielder and current model. He played for the Paraguay national team from 2007 to 2016. Santana was a key part of Paraguay's national team whilst under management of Tata Martino, featuring in three major competitions, the 2007 Copa América, the 2010 FIFA World Cup and the 2011 Copa América. Santana missed the final of the latter due to a red card in the semi-final against Venezuela. Santana's career ran from 1998 to 2020, playing in Argentina, Germany, Turkey and Paraguay. In 2021, Santana retired as a footballer and became a model.
Jonathan Emmanuel Orozco Domínguez is a Mexican professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Liga MX club Tijuana.
The Ghana national U-17 football team, known as the Black Starlets, is the youngest team that represents Ghana in football. They are two-time FIFA U-17 World Cup Champions in 1991 and 1995 and a two-time Runner-up in 1993 and 1997. Ghana has participated in nine of the 17 World Cup events starting with their first in Scotland 1989 through dominating the competition in the 1990s where at one time they qualified for 4 consecutive World Cup finals in Italy 1991, Japan 1993, Ecuador 1995 and Egypt 1997 to their most recent participation in South Korea 2007 where they lost in the World Cup Semi-finals 1–2 to Spain in extra time.
Football is one of the top two most popular sports in Lithuania by the quantity of active sportsmen. However, with only 52,000 match spectators a year (2019) in all top league matches, it falls far behind country's most popular sport, basketball. Other variations of football like futsal, 5-a-side to 8-a-side football, beach soccer have become fairly popular as well.
Jonathan Mensah, commonly known simply as Jonathan, is a Ghanaian professional footballer who plays as a defender for Major League Soccer club San Jose Earthquakes. He previously played for Ashanti Gold, Free State Stars, Granada, Evian, Anzhi Makhachkala and Columbus Crew. Jonathan has represented the Ghana national team at two World Cups. To avoid confusion with the similarly named but unrelated John Mensah, he is typically known as and plays with the name "Jonathan" on his shirt.
International Allies FC is a Ghanaian professional football club based in Tema, Greater Accra. They play in the Ghana Premier League.
Guillermo Rojas Rumilla is a Mexican former football winger. He last played for Cafetaleros de Tapachula of the Liga MX. Rojas made his professional debut with Puebla in 2003. He is considered to be one of the fastest footballers in the world.
Christian Bolaños Navarro is a Costa Rican professional footballer who plays as a winger for Liga FPD club Saprissa. Since his international debut in 2005, Bolaños has earned over 80 international caps and played at three FIFA World Cups.
The FIFA Club World Cup is an international association football competition organised by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The championship was first contested as the FIFA Club World Championship in 2000. It was not held between 2001 and 2004 due to a combination of factors, most importantly the collapse of FIFA's marketing partner International Sport and Leisure. Following a change in format which saw the FIFA Club World Championship absorb the Intercontinental Cup, it was relaunched in 2005 and took its current name the season afterwards.
Stella Quartey is a Ghanaian footballer who played as a midfielder for the Ghana women's national football team. She was part of the team at the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup. On club level she played for Ghatel Ladies in Ghana.
