22 Shocking football facts that you never knew about

(1) Thomas Langu Sweswe, a Zimbabwe player, played for 90 minutes and didn’t touch the ball

During a match for his team, Kaizer Chiefs FC (One of the richest football clubs in Africa), Thomas Langu Sweswe went on for complete 90 minutes without ever touching the ball.

(2) Zinedine Zidane was never offside in his entire career

(3) Celtic beat Barcelona with 11% ball possession

It was a historic night in the UEFA Champions League history, one that Celtic will never forget as they left Lionel Messi and his teammates in utter shock and disbelief.

Despite having 89% ball possession and 8 shots on target, Barcelona still lost to Celtic. Celtic scored the 1st goal in the 21st minute, as Victor Wanyama converted a corner kick to a goal after an impressive header.

In the 83rd minute, Tony Watt scored the second goal for Celtic and Lionel Messi scored a consolation goal for Barcelona in the 91st minute.

See the highlight below.

(4) Willian has more champions league goals than Ronaldinho

(5) It took Ronaldo 30 games before he scored his first Champions League goal

Cristiano Ronaldo is the current UEFA Champions League highest goal scorer of all time but you probably don’t know what it took before he achieved this feat.

After appearing in 30 games in the Champions League, Ronaldo got his first goal in the 2006/2007 Champions League quarter-final after he scored twice against Roma in a 7-1 win.

(6) Philipp Lahm once went 13 months without committing a foul

(7) Benjamin Aguero is the son of Sergio Aguero, Grandchild of Diego Maradona and Messi is his God-father.

(8) Kingsley Coman has won the League every season of his professional career (PSG, Juventus, and Bayern)

Kingsley Coman made his debut in the 2013/13 season in PSG, he has since played for Juventus and Bayern Munich and won the league title in every year in his career.

(9) Wayne Rooney, Gareth Bale, and Kevin Davies are the only players to score, assist and score an own goal in a single Premier League game.

(10) Spain Won the 2010 World Cup with only 8 eight goals throughout the competition

The competition didn’t start well for them as they lost their first match to Switzerland, 0-1 on the 16th of June. They went on to defeat Honduras, 2-0 in their second game, and in their last group match, they won Chile 2-0 and proceeded to the round of sixteen.

On 29 June, a goal by Villa eliminated Portugal from the World Cup and put Spain in the quarter-finals. David Villa’s single goal also sent Paraguay home as Spain proceeded to the Semi-Finals. In the semi-final against Germany, a single goal, this time by Puyol propelled them into the final and on the 12th of July, 2010, the Spain National team won the world cup after a single goal in the 116th minute by Iniesta secured the victory for them.

(11) Marcelo has never played in the Copa America

(12) Gary Lineker never received a yellow card in his career

(13) Giroud’s scorpion kick goal won the Puskas award but didn’t win goal of the month

(14) Benteke has more Premier League goals than Eric Cantona

Out of 239 Premier League appearances, Christian Benteke scored 75 and had 21 assists while Eric Cantona, out of 156 appearances, had 70 goals and 56 assists.

(15) Real Madrid beat their own reserve side in the 1980 Copa Del Rey final

In the 1980 Copa Del Rey final, their opponent turned out to be Real Madrid Castilla, their reverse side, who they ended up beating 6-1 at the Bernabeu.

(16) Zlatan Ibrahimovic has played for six clubs that have won the Champions League, but he has never actually won the trophy himself

(17) Chelsea have been relegated as many times as they have won the league

Chelsea has been relegated 6 times: In 1910, 1924, 1962, 1975, 1979, and 1988 and they have won the premier league title 6 times.

(18) Neymar won the La Liga player of the month award before Lionel Messi did

The La Liga Player of the month award was introduced in September 2013 and Neymar won the award for the month of November 2015, making him the first Barcelona player to win the award while Messi won his first La Liga Player of the month in January 2016.

(19) Theo Walcott has more Champions League goals than Brazilian Ronaldo, Hazard, David Villa, Klose, Zidane, Huntelaar, Tevez, Alexis Sanchez, and Michael Owen

(20) In their entire career, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Cristiano Ronaldo have scored in every minute of a football match.

(21) Jose Mourinho went nine years out without losing a home game

(22) Manchester United have never lost a Premier League game at Old Trafford after leading at half-time