Players Who Refused to Celebrate Against Their Birth Country
Switzerland's Breel Embolo, born in Cameroon, notably refrained from celebrating his goal against Cameroon at the 2022 World Cup. Similarly, Sweden's Yasin Ayari, with a Tunisian father, chose not to celebrate his first goal against Tunisia, though he later celebrated a second goal. Declan Rice also showed restraint after scoring against the Republic of Ireland in 2024. Michael Pilcher asked for the earliest such example.
Filippo Varanini pointed to Embolo, while earlier instances include Mesut Özil, who did not celebrate against Turkey in a 2010 European Championship qualifier. Özil was born in Germany to Turkish immigrants. However, the earliest known case is Lukas Podolski, who scored twice against Poland at Euro 2008 without celebrating. Podolski, born in Poland but representing Germany, told FourFourTwo in 2022: 'This was a difficult and emotional game for me. Both the German and Polish press focused on me before it, building the pressure, and there were so many Polish fans in the ground. I didn't celebrate, but I'm a professional and had to do what was expected of me. I support Poland on every other occasion.'
Dick Advocaat and Multiple National Team Managers
Luke Carruthers asked if Dick Advocaat, who has coached eight different men's international teams, holds a record. Rudi Gutendorf holds the record with 17 national manager jobs over 53 years, including Chile, Bolivia, Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, Antigua, Botswana, Australia, New Caledonia, Nepal, Tonga, Tanzania, Ghana, Nepal again, Fiji, Zimbabwe, Mauritius, and Rwanda, plus the Iranian and Chinese Olympic teams. However, Christoph Arlick noted that several of Gutendorf's sides played no official games under him.
Other managers with eight or more international jobs include Bora Milutinovic (eight: Mexico, Costa Rica, USA, Nigeria, China, Honduras, Jamaica, Iraq), Claude Le Roy (nine: Cameroon, Senegal, Malaysia, DR Congo, Ghana, Oman, Syria, Congo, Togo), Danny McLennan (10: Philippines, Mauritius, Rhodesia, Iran, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Malawi, Fiji, Libya), and Tom Saintfiet (12: Namibia, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Yemen, Malawi, Togo, Bangladesh, Trinidad and Tobago, Malta, Gambia, Philippines, Mali).
Regarding Advocaat managing both Netherlands men's and women's teams, John Herdman is the only other known example. Herdman managed Canada's women's team from 2011 to 2018, leading them to bronze at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, then took over the men's team in 2018, guiding them to the 2022 World Cup.
Longest Wait Between World Cup Appearances
Alexander Scott noted that New Zealand's Chris Wood and Tommy Smith played at their second World Cup 16 years after their first. Dirk Maas confirmed that Wood equalled Faryd Mondragón's record (Colombia, 1998 and 2014). Previous 12-year waits include Alfred Bickel, Erik Nilsson, Pirri, Wilfried Van Moer, Michael Laudrup, Hernán Medford, Niall Quinn, Santiago Cañizares, Lee Dong-gook, Daniel Van Buyten, Aleksandr Kerzhakov, Randall Azofeifa, Edin Dzeko, Sead Kolasinac, Nabil Bentaleb, Aïssa Mandi, Riyad Mahrez, and Lucas Digne.
Dave Beasant Penalty Myth
George Jones asked about the theory that England should have brought Dave Beasant on for penalties against West Germany in 1990. Rob Smyth clarified that England had not used all substitutes (only Trevor Steven replaced Terry Butcher), but in those days, only five subs were named. Beasant was not among them; the other subs were Chris Woods, Tony Dorigo, Steve McMahon, and Steve Bull.
Reader Questions
Roger Kirkby asks which countries have zero World Cup points. Rob Davies wonders how many FIFA-recognized leagues have never had a World Cup player, noting Thailand's Rebin Sulaka (Iraq) playing for Port FC. Chris Carter asks if any team recorded a first World Cup win with a larger margin than Canada's 6-0 over Qatar. Tony Marsden notes the Netherlands started against Japan with no Eredivisie players, while Japan had two Feyenoord players, asking if a country ever had more players from the opponent's league. Lars Bøgegaard queries why some national teams do not play in their flag colours, citing Cape Verde (blue), Netherlands (orange), Australia (yellow/green), Japan (blue/white), and Germany (white/black).
