World Cup History 1958

A Potted History of the World Cup

Sweden 1958

Let's look back at the sixth World Cup, held in Sweden in 1958 and won by Brazil, their first of a record five victories so far. Intriguingly, of all WC winners, Brazil are the only country never to have won at home.

Brazil matched up against England in the first round in 1958. At the time it was a mouth-watering prospect. Brazil had scored 49 times in 17 WC Finals appearances (scoring in every game), England had 12 goals from 7. Both teams were in fine form. Brazil had scored in both their qualifiers, England had scored 15 goals in their four qualifiers. With such a build-up there was really only one possible result wasn't there? The game finished 0-0, the first ever scoreless draw in 54 years and 104 games of WC Finals football.

One postscript to this scoreless match is that Brazil immediately drafted in an unknown 17-year-old to help them score goals. His six goals in their next four games were key to their first WC triumph. His name was, of course, Pele. Pele remains the youngest player ever to win a World Cup.

Have you heard of Just Fontaine of France? Well you should have. He holds the record for the most goals in a WC Finals series. He scored 3 when France defeated Paraguay 7-3, 2 in a 2-3 loss to Yugoslavia, 1 in a 2-1 win over Scotland, 2 in the 4-0 quarter-final win over Northern Ireland, 1 in the 2-5 semi-final loss to Brazil, and an incredible 4 in the 6-3 3rd/4th playoff win over Germany. Even more remarkably, he only made the side after a late injury opened a spot in the squad. Further, one of his boots fell apart at his first squad training session, so he borrowed a pair which he then used for the entire finals series.