60+ Interesting Football Facts And Information For Kids

Image: iStock

If your child is enthusiastic about quarterback equipment or kicking a soccer ball around your home, then this post is for you. Football facts for kids will help them understand the game and play trivia. Telling them about football is guaranteed to boost their knowledge about the game. Whether it is American Football touchdown or Soccer free kick, this post consists of football facts your child would love reading. Your children can also play a quiz with their peers or cheer their family and friends with some new knowledge. This game requires proper training and strategy to excel, an essential aspect of learning and inspiration for children.

60+ Interesting Football Facts And Information For Kids

1. The History Of Football For Kids

Image: Shutterstock

• The game of football first originated around the year 476 BC in China. When it began, it was referred to as Cuju.

• It continues to be one of the most popular, most watched, and most played sports around the world.

• The first-ever game of football used a ball that was made of leather. The players had to kick the ball through a hole that was made in a piece of silk cloth. The ball was then tied to canes and hung at a height of about 9 m above the ground, where the players had to kick it with their feet.
• There were various variations of the original game that were made as it spread towards Japan and Korea. During these variations, more new features were added to the game, including placing a goalpost right in the middle of the field.
• Later, as the game started getting more and more recognition, and as more professional players started to join the sport, recognizable football goal posts were added as part of the game.

• The game of football received its name not because the ball is kicked with the foot, but because it is a sport that is played on foot. In the earlier days, the peasants would play almost all their sports on foot while those of a higher social status played their sport on horseback. As a result, the games that were played on foot were referred to as football.

• In some of the earliest versions of football, the players had to pick up the ball in their hands and run towards the goal area to strike a goal.

• Some of the earliest forms of the game of football that were played in England were played between neighboring villages and towns. The players often used an animal bladder instead of a proper ball. The animal bladder was first inflated, and players had to move the ‘ball’ to one particular area that used to be decided in advance. For instance, the players would be required to move the ball to the village green of the opponent team or the church of the opponent team. There were barely any rules in place, and any number of players could join in the game, as a result of which it often became very difficult to follow any rules or proper way of playing. Such games soon came to be known as ‘mob football.’

• The public schools of Britain helped to turn the game of football from ‘mob football’ to regular football. The schools helped to form particular rules that the players would have to follow, and the matches were often played between various schools.
• The Football Hall of Fame is situated in Canton in Ohio.
• Until the year 1913, the goalies were not required to wear a different colored shirt than what their teammates were wearing.

• A soccer ball was used to play one of the first ever games of basketball.

• The world’s first football club was founded in the year 1857 by two British Army Officers, Colonel Nathaniel Creswick and Major William Priest. The club was named as the English Sheffield Football Club.

• The NFL, which is a short form for the National Football League, is one of the world’s most popular football leagues, and it is based in the US.

• Till the year 1943, it was not mandatory by the NFL for the football players to wear a helmet while on the field.

• One of the first-ever black football players made his debut in the 1800s. His name was Arthur Wharton.

• Andrew Watson is known as the first international black football player and is also the first non-white football player who was featured in the FA Cup. Andrew was born in Guiana and was a major celebrity during the Victorian era when he won three Cups for the team of Scotland in the 1880s.

• The word soccer originated in England. In the beginning, the term ‘Association Football’ was shortened to ‘Assoc Football’, which was then again shortened to the term ‘soccer.’ During the 19th century, it was a popular culture in England to add the ‘-er’ sound to any shortened word.

• Today, only Americans and Canadians refer to the game of football as ‘soccer.’

Image: Shutterstock

• For the past 120 years, the ball that is used in professional football has not gone through any change in its size or shape. It has a constant circumference of 28 inches.

• FIFA has more member countries in it than the U.N.

• The FIFA Women’s World Cup was first hosted in 1991 and has immensely popularized the game among female footballers and football enthusiasts worldwide.

Quick fact

Brazil is considered the most successful in the FIFA World Cup with five wins.

2. About The Sport

• The length of a football field is 100 yards while its width is 53 and ½ yards.
• One of the largest ever football tournaments took place in the year 1999 in which a total of 5,098 teams had participated. It was for the second Bangkok League Seven-a-Side competition in which more than 35,000 players took part.
• The highest number of goals ever scored by one player in a single football match was 16 in the year 1942 in December. It was scored by a player named Stephan Stanis from France who was playing for a club known as Racing Club de Lens.

• On an average, a football player runs for an average of 9.65 km during each game, which is the equivalent of about 15 km.

• As per the evidence recorded on video footage, one of the fastest ever goals was scored by a player named Ricardo Olivera from Uruguay in the month of December in the year 1998. He scored the goal in a total of 2.8 seconds.

• Till date, the football teams of Europe have reached every single World Cup Final match except two, in the year 1930 and the year 1950.

• Ronaldinho became a football sensation when he scored 23 goals in a game his team won by the score of 23-0.

Image: Shutterstock

• Cristiano Ronaldo, Ballon d’Or winner, became the first player who scored a goal in every single minute of the game.

• One of the highest scoring football matches ever was one in which a total of 149 goals were scored from one side to reach a score of 149-0. The team was known as the StadeOlympique de L’emyrne from Madagascar. The team scored their goals as a mark of protest for an unfair decision that was taken by the referee in an earlier game.

• One of the first ever live coverage of a football match was shown on television in the year 1937. It was for a practice match that was being played between Arsenal and Arsenal Reserves at Highbury Stadium.

• On an average, more than one in 20 injuries that happen during a football match are a result of the celebration of scoring a goal on the pitch.

• The highest number of goals scored in a Football World Cup match was in the year 1982 when Hungary scored ten goals against El Salvador.

• In the year 1969, El Salvador waged a war against Honduras after it lost a football match against the same.

• One of the youngest ever Football World Cup winners was Pele, who won the world cup in 1958, at the age of 17 years and 249 days.

• One of the oldest ever Football World Cup winners was the former Italian goalkeeper Dino Zoff. He won the trophy in the year 1982 at the age of 40 years and 133 days.

• The only footballer who ever scored a winning goal for San Marino was Andy Selva. He scored their only winning goal in the year 2004 against Liechtenstein to score a 1-0 victory. Out of the total 121 games that San Marino played, the team had a record win of 1 game, three draws, and 117 losses.

• Footballer Andy Selva also holds the distinction of being his nation’s all-time top goalscorer. He had scored 8 goals out of the 64 appearances he made.
• The record of receiving the fastest red card in the history of professional football is a mere two seconds. The referee issued the red card to a footballer named Lee Todd after he used foul language.
• The football legend Mario Zagallo from Brazil was the first ever professional footballer in the history of the sport who won the Football World Cup trophy as a player in the years 1958 and 1962, and later as a coach in the year 1970.

• Twenty years after Mario Zagallo created history in the world of professional football, Franz Beckenbauer from Germany became the second professional football player in the history of the sport who won the title both as a player and as a coach. First, he helped Germany reach victory as a player in the year 1974, and 16 years later, he won the title as a coach in the year 1990. These were some of the fun and interesting football information for kids to know.

Quick fact

Stadium 974 in Qatar which hosted many matches in World Cup 2022, is a ‘Transportable’ stadium made of shipping containers. It is the first fully demountable football venue and has a capacity of 40,000.

3. More Fun Football Facts For Kids

Image: Shutterstock

• During the Football World Cup matches, more than one billion fans watch the game on television.

• Neil Armstrong, the first ever human being to walk on the moon, wanted to carry a football all the way to the moon with him. However, NASA did not allow the same as it felt the act would be looked upon as being un-American.

• The country of Pakistan manufactures more than 80 percent of the total footballs that are used around the world.

• Did you know that Gordon Ramsey, who is today known the world over as a celebrity chef and one of the finest chefs in the world, had been scouted by Rangers but had to leave his dream of becoming a professional footballer after he suffered a knee injury.

• The legendary philosopher Albert Camus used to play as a goalie for his university football team, but had to give up on the dream after he was struck with TB, as a result of which he could not go ahead with professional football.

• Out of the 12 host cities for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, 8 are considered to be among the 50 most violent cities around the world.

• The youngest professional football player to ever be signed on by a professional football club was aged only 20 months. He was signed on by a professional football club in Belgium.

• In the year 1964, a call by a referee in a football match in Peru led to a riot in which more than 300 people were killed.

• Mesut Ozil is a German football player who donated his World Cup victory bonus pay of 300,000 euro to help pay for the surgeries of 23 children in Brazil.

• In 1967, the two sides that were involved in the Nigerian Civil War decided to go on a ceasefire for 48 hours, so that they could watch football player Pele play in an exhibition match in Lagos.

• In the year 1998, a bolt of lightning struck a football match field in Congo. An entire football team was wiped off as all 11 members of the same team died whereas the members of the other team were not touched by the lightning strike. The match was being played between the villages of nearby Basangana and BenaTshadi.

• In the year 2011, it cost more than 30 million US dollars to advertise a 30 second commercial during the Super Bowl.

Quick fact

It is an Arsenal tradition, that the team captain chooses the length of the entire team’s t-shirt sleeves. It represents their unity.

Key: 1. B 2. C 3. D

Infographic: Interesting Facts About Football World Cup

The Football World Cup is a highly-anticipated and most-watched sporting spectacle held every four years in a different country. Scroll through the infographic below as we present some exciting facts about the event. Don’t forget to save and share it with your children!

Illustration: Momjunction Design Team

Illustration: Interesting Football Facts And Information For Kids

Image: Dall·E/MomJunction Design Team

Discover some remarkable soccer history and stats in this educational video. Learn ten amazing facts about the World Cup and more!

Community Experiences

Join the conversation and become a part of our nurturing community! Share your stories, experiences, and insights to connect with fellow parents.

Author Editor Fact Checker

Manjiri Kochrekar

Manjiri is a freelance writer with experience in writing on a wide range of topics, including travel, education, yoga, and children’s activities, fun and learning. She is passionate about creative writing and loves to put her thoughts into words.

Read full bio of Manjiri Kochrekar

Harshita MakvanaB.Com, PG Dip

Harshita is a graduate in commerce and holds a PG Diploma in Patent and Copyrights Law from NALSAR University. She has also pursued CA and has more than three years of internship experience in auditing. Her love for travelling has taken her to various parts of the world, and writing the travelogues was what brought out her love for content writing.

Read full bio of Harshita Makvana

Trisha ChakrabortyMA, BEd

Trisha worked as a schoolteacher for three years before taking up professional writing in 2021. She completed her masters in English from the University of Calcutta and bachelors in Education from the University of Burdwan.

Read full bio of Trisha Chakraborty