Despite the fact that Turkey, Scotland, and Russia did not make it to the finals, their local leagues were represented by 12, 11, and 10 players, respectively. Domestic leagues from 48 different countries were represented in the 2006 World Cup. On June 19, 2006, FIFA-compliant club rosters have been finalized, omitting standby and loan players.
The following is a list of all players who participated in at least one match during the tournament:
Australia - Mile Jedinak (Aston Villa) - captain
Belgium - Eden Hazard (Chelsea) - captain
Brazil - David Luiz (Chelsea) - defender
Bulgaria - Asen Balakov (Sparta Prague) - midfielder
Canada - Kyle Bekker (Sunderland) - midfielder
Chile - Alexis Sanchez (Werder Bremen) - forward
China - Li Peng (Shandong Luneng) - forward/midfielder
Colombia - Carlos Valderrama (Bayer Leverkusen) - forward/midfielder
Costa Rica - Giancarlo Gonzalez (Celta Vigo) - midfielder
Croatia - Niko Kranjcar (Lille) - midfielder
Other sources, like as FIFA's official World Cup roster, show 22 players in the team, including both Hodgkinson and Setters.
Both competitions' finals are conducted every four years in alternate odd-numbered years.
This covers only players who were at Premier League teams at the time of the World Cup and who actually featured in the game; unused replacements like as Louis Saha (2006), Pepe Reina (2010), and Lukas Podolski (2014) are not included.
That means that 56 players have been involved with the World Cup over its history. Here they are, in order of appearance:
Roy Hodgson - England manager Hodgson was named as the first manager to be given a chance by Vladimir Putin when he was appointed as Russia's president in 2000. However, despite having the most opportunities of any player in the world, Hodgson never scored or assisted a goal.
Luis Suarez - Uruguay striker Suarez has become one of world football's most prolific goalscorers during his time at Liverpool, scoring 156 goals in all competitions. He has also won several awards including the PFA Player of the Year twice, the FIFPro World Player of the Year, the UEFA Champions League Top Scorer, and the FIFA World Player Award.
David Beckham - England midfielder Beckham played for France, Spain, Milan, and Los Angeles Galaxy before retiring from football in 2013. He is considered one of the best-known athletes in the world and at the time of his retirement he had earned 101 caps and 15 goals for his country.
Despite tightening constraints in recent years, all but six of the 32 World Cup teams will field foreign-born citizens throughout the competition. Foreign-born players will make up slightly more than 10% of all World Cup players (78 out of 736).
The most common countries of birth for these players are Brazil (4.9%), France (3.7%) and Italy (3.5%). The majority of them have been born in Europe (58.5%) followed by North America (23.1%). There are also many players from Asia (8.6%), South America (2.6%), and Oceania ( 0.8%).
Of the 78 foreign-born players, 36 were born in Europe, 13 in North America, 11 in South America, 3 in Oceania, and 17 in other continents.
The number of foreign-born players on World Cup teams has increased since their first appearance in 1930 when only eight nations had nationals born outside of Europe. Since then, several countries have become major producers of talent with many promising youngsters wanting to break into the game. These countries include Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and England.
World Cup 2019: 5 players with the most World Cup appearancesRicky Ponting (Australia) is rated #1. Sachin Tendulkar is ranked second (India) 3 Muralitharan, Muttiah Muralithan (Sri Lanka) Wasim Akram is number four (Pakistan) Sanath Jayasuriya, No. 5 (Sri Lanka) More >
The top five players as chosen by FIFA are as follows:
Ricky Ponting (Australia) 3555 matches
Sachin Tendulkar (India) 3345 matches
Muralitharan, Muttiah Muralithan (Sri Lanka) 3140 matches
Wasim Akram (Pakistan) 3090 matches
Sanath Jayasuriya (Sri Lanka) 3080 matches.
FIFA list their selection based on criteria such as games played, goals scored, and awards won. They take into account all international tournaments including the Olympic Games. The only exception is the case of Cristiano Ronaldo who is considered one of the best footballers in history despite not having played for his country at an official international tournament.
According to them, Ricky Ponting is the number one player of all time because he has the most international matches (5555). His teammate Steve Smith is second because he too has been involved in almost every match Australia has played during his career.
France, Mexico, Chile, the United States, Uruguay, Northern Ireland, Haiti, East Germany, Jamaica, and Croatia all participated in their first World Cup, but only France got beyond the first round. Diego Maradona has led the squad in 16 matches as captain. Only three other players have won more matches than he has. Brazil has the most wins with 87 victories.
Mexico is the only country to have played in every World Cup since its founding in 1930. It lost in the quarter-finals in 1950 and '82 and went winless from 1986 through 1990. In 2014, it finished second behind Brazil in its group ahead of Switzerland and Colombia and went out in the round of 16 to Germany.
Brazil has been playing at the World Cup since 1958 when it lost to Sweden in Stockholm. The Swedish team was made up of players who had seceded from Portugal after that country's military dictatorship banned sports clubs from hiring foreign coaches or players.
Italy hosted the World Cup twice - in 1934 and 1938 - but did not qualify for the final rounds. At the time, Italy was made up of multiple nations with separate football histories, so they competed as a single entity called "The Azzurri". Today they belong to UEFA and so play under their own names again.
Spain has never missed the World Cup, entering the tournament in 1928 before it was renamed for its best-known event.
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