Spain
Spain the Kingdom of Spain, is a country located in Europe. Its continental European territory is situated on the Iberian Peninsula, its territory includes two archipelagoes: the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa, the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea. The African enclaves of Ceuta, Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera make Spain the only European country to have a physical border with an African country. Several small islands in the Alboran Sea are part of Spanish territory; the country's mainland is bordered to the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea except for a small land boundary with Gibraltar. With an area of 505,990 km2, Spain is the largest country in Southern Europe, the second largest country in Western Europe and the European Union, the fourth largest country in the European continent. By population, Spain is the fifth in the European Union. Spain's capital and largest city is Madrid. Modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago. Iberian cultures along with ancient Phoenician, Greek and Carthaginian settlements developed on the peninsula until it came under Roman rule around 200 BCE, after which the region was named Hispania, based on the earlier Phoenician name Spn or Spania.
At the end of the Western Roman Empire the Germanic tribal confederations migrated from Central Europe, invaded the Iberian peninsula and established independent realms in its western provinces, including the Suebi and Vandals. The Visigoths would forcibly integrate all remaining independent territories in the peninsula, including Byzantine provinces, into the Kingdom of Toledo, which more or less unified politically and all the former Roman provinces or successor kingdoms of what was documented as Hispania. In the early eighth century the Visigothic Kingdom fell to the Moors of the Umayyad Islamic Caliphate, who arrived to rule most of the peninsula in the year 726, leaving only a handful of small Christian realms in the north and lasting up to seven centuries in the Kingdom of Granada; this led to many wars during a long reconquering period across the Iberian Peninsula, which led to the creation of the Kingdom of Leon, Kingdom of Castile, Kingdom of Aragon and Kingdom of Navarre as the main Christian kingdoms to face the invasion.
Following the Moorish conquest, Europeans began a gradual process of retaking the region known as the Reconquista, which by the late 15th century culminated in the emergence of Spain as a unified country under the Catholic Monarchs. Until Aragon had been an independent kingdom, which had expanded toward the eastern Mediterranean, incorporating Sicily and Naples, had competed with Genoa and Venice. In the early modern period, Spain became the world's first global empire and the most powerful country in the world, leaving a large cultural and linguistic legacy that includes more than 570 million Hispanophones, making Spanish the world's second-most spoken native language, after Mandarin Chinese. During the Golden Age there were many advancements in the arts, with world-famous painters such as Diego Velázquez; the most famous Spanish literary work, Don Quixote, was published during the Golden Age. Spain hosts the world's third-largest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Spain is a secular parliamentary democracy and a parliamentary monarchy, with King Felipe VI as head of state.
It is a major developed country and a high income country, with the world's fourteenth largest economy by nominal GDP and sixteenth largest by purchasing power parity. It is a member of the United Nations, the European Union, the Eurozone, the Council of Europe, the Organization of Ibero-American States, the Union for the Mediterranean, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the Schengen Area, the World Trade Organization and many other international organisations. While not an official member, Spain has a "Permanent Invitation" to the G20 summits, participating in every summit, which makes Spain a de facto member of the group; the origins of the Roman name Hispania, from which the modern name España was derived, are uncertain due to inadequate evidence, although it is documented that the Phoenicians and Carthaginians referred to the region as Spania, therefore the most accepted etymology is a Semitic-Phoenician one.
Down the centuries there have been a number of accounts and hypotheses: The Renaissance scholar Antonio de Nebrija proposed that the word Hispania evolved from the Iberian word Hispalis, meaning "city of the western world". Jesús Luis Cunchillos argues that the root of the term span is the Phoenician word spy, meaning "to forge metals". Therefore, i-spn-ya would mean "the land where metals are forged", it may be a derivation of the Phoenician I-Shpania, meaning "island of rabbits", "land of rabbits" or "edge", a reference to Spain's location at the end of the Mediterranean. The word in question means "Hyrax" due to Phoenicians confusing the two animals. Hispania may derive from the poetic use of the term Hesperia, reflecting the Greek perception of Italy as a "western land" or "land of the setting sun" (Hesperia
1995 King Fahd Cup
The 1995 King Fahd Cup was the second and last tournament held under the King Fahd Cup name before the competition was retroactively sanctioned by FIFA and renamed the FIFA Confederations Cup. It was hosted by Saudi Arabia in January 1995, it was won by Denmark. All matches were played at the 67,000-capacity King Fahd II Stadium in Saudi Arabia. With three goals, Luis García is the top scorer in the tournament. In total, 19 goals were scored with none of them credited as own goal. 3 goals Luis García2 goals 1 goal RSSSF Intercontinental Championship Saudi Arabia 1995, FIFA.com
Karim Zaza
Karim Zaza is a retired professional footballer. Born in Denmark to Moroccan parents, he established himself as one of the top goalkeepers of Danish football with three consecutive Danish Goalkeeper of the Year awards from 2001 to 2003, he won the Danish Cup twice with F. C. Copenhagen and the Double of both Danish Cup and Superliga championship with Brøndby IF in 2005, he played five games for the Morocco national football team. On 21 March 2010, Zaza played his 100th game for AaB in all competitions. Zaza ended his career at the Danish 1st Division side Vendsyssel FF, retiring in the Summer of 2014, after a knee injury that prevented him from playing. AaB profile Brøndby IF profile F. C. Copenhagen profile Superliga stats by Danish Football Association Karim Zaza at fussballdaten.de Karim Zaza at National-Football-Teams.com
Germany national football team
The Germany national football team is the men's football team that has represented Germany in international competition since 1908. It is governed by the German Football Association, founded in 1900. Since the DFB was reinaugurated in 1949 the team has represented the Federal Republic of Germany. Under Allied occupation and division, two other separate national teams were recognised by FIFA: the Saarland team representing the Saarland and the East German team representing the German Democratic Republic. Both have been absorbed along with their records by the current national team; the official name and code "Germany FR" was shortened to "Germany" following the reunification in 1990. Germany is one of the most successful national teams in international competitions, having won four World Cups, three European Championships, one Confederations Cup, they have been runners-up three times in the European Championships, four times in the World Cup, a further four third-place finishes at World Cups. East Germany won Olympic Gold in 1976.
Germany is the only nation to have won both the FIFA Women's World Cup. At the end of the 2014 World Cup, Germany earned the highest Elo rating of any national football team in history, with a record 2205 points. Germany is the only European nation that has won a FIFA World Cup in the Americas; the manager of the national team is Joachim Löw. Between 1899 and 1901, prior to the formation of a national team, there were five unofficial international matches between German and English selection teams, which all ended as large defeats for the German teams. Eight years after the establishment of the German Football Association, the first official match of the Germany national football team was played on 5 April 1908, against Switzerland in Basel, with the Swiss winning 5–3. Gottfried Fuchs scored a world record 10 goals for Germany in a 16–0 win against Russia at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm on 1 July, becoming the top scorer of the tournament, he was Jewish, the German Football Association erased all references to him from their records between 1933 and 1945.
As of 2016, he was still the top German scorer for one match. The first match after World War I in 1920, the first match after World War II in 1950 when Germany was still banned from most international competitions, the first match in 1990 with former East German players were all against Switzerland as well. Germany's first championship title was won in Switzerland in 1954. At that time the players were selected by the DFB; the first manager of the Germany national team was Otto Nerz, a school teacher from Mannheim, who served in the role from 1926 to 1936. The German FA could not afford travel to Uruguay for the first World Cup staged in 1930 during the Great Depression, but finished third in the 1934 World Cup in their first appearance in the competition. After a poor showing at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Sepp Herberger became coach. In 1937 he put together a squad, soon nicknamed the Breslau Elf in recognition of their 8–0 win over Denmark in the German city of Breslau, Lower Silesia.
After Austria became part of Germany in the Anschluss of March 1938, that country's national team – one of Europe's best sides at the time due to professionalism – was disbanded despite having qualified for the 1938 World Cup. Nazi politicians ordered five or six ex-Austrian players, from the clubs Rapid Vienna, Austria Vienna, First Vienna FC, to join the all-German team on short notice in a staged show of unity for political reasons. In the 1938 World Cup that began on 4 June, this "united" German team managed only a 1–1 draw against Switzerland and lost the replay 2–4 in front of a hostile crowd in Paris, France; that early exit stands as Germany's worst World Cup result, one of just two occasions the team failed to progress the group stage. During World War II, the team played over 30 international games between September 1939 and November 1942. National team games were suspended, as most players had to join the armed forces. Many of the national team players were gathered together under coach Herberger as Rote Jäger through the efforts of a sympathetic air force officer trying to protect the footballers from the most dangerous wartime service.
After World War II, Germany was banned from competition in most sports until 1950. The DFB was not a full member of FIFA, none of the three new German states — West Germany, East Germany, Saarland — entered the 1950 World Cup qualifiers; the Federal Republic of Germany, referred to as West Germany, continued the DFB. With recognition by FIFA and UEFA, the DFB continued the record of the pre-war team. Switzerland was once again the first team that played West Germany in 1950. West Germany qualified for the 1954 World Cup; the Saarland, under French control between 1947 and 1956, did not join French organisations, was barred from participating in pan-German ones. It sent their own team to the 1954 World Cup qualifiers. In 1957, Saarland acceded to the Federal Republic of Germany. In 1949, the communist German Democratic Republic was founded. In 1952 the Deutscher Fußball-Verband der DDR was established and the East Germany national football team took to the field, they were the only team to beat the 1974 FIFA World Cup winning West Germans in the onl
FIFA Confederations Cup
The FIFA Confederations Cup was an international association football tournament for men's national teams, held every four years by FIFA. It was contested by the holders of each of the six continental championships, along with the current FIFA World Cup holder and the host nation, to bring the number of teams up to eight. Between 2005 and 2017, the tournament was held in the nation that would host the next World Cup, acting as a test event for the larger tournament; the last champions were Germany, who won the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup by defeating Chile 1–0 in the final to win their first title. In March 2019, FIFA confirmed that the tournament would no longer be active owing to an expansion of the FIFA Club World Cup in 2021; the tournament was organized by and held in Saudi Arabia and called the King Fahd Cup, contested in 1992 and 1995 by the Saudi national side and some continental champions. In 1997, FIFA took over the organization of the tournament, named it the FIFA Confederations Cup and staged the competition every two years.
After 2005, it was held every four years, in the year prior to each World Cup in the host country of the forthcoming World Cup. Considered a dress-rehearsal for the World Cup it precedes, it used around half of the stadiums intended for use at the following year's competition and gave the host nation, which qualified for that tournament automatically, experience at a high level of competition during two years of otherwise friendlies. At the same time, participation was made optional for European champions; the host nation, the World Cup holders, the six continental champions qualifed for the competition. In those cases where a team meets more than one of the qualification criteria, another team was invited to participate the runner-up in a competition that the extra-qualified team won. On four occasions teams have chosen not to participate in the tournament. Germany did so twice, in 1997 and in 2003 when Germany were awarded a place as the 2002 World Cup runners-up, replaced by the third-placed team Turkey.
World champions France declined a place in the 1999 Confederations Cup, replaced by Brazil, the 1998 World Cup runners-up. Italy, UEFA Euro 2000 runners up, declined their place in the 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup. An earlier tournament that invited former World Cup winners, the Mundialito, celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the first World Cup; the Artemio Franchi Trophy, contested in 1985 and 1993 between the winners of the Copa América and UEFA European Football Championship, was another example of an earlier contest between football confederations. Both of these are considered by some to be a form of an unofficial precursor to the Confederations Cup, although FIFA recognised only the 1992 tournaments onwards to be Confederations Cup winners; the 2021 tournament was to be held in Qatar, the host country of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, as announced on 2 December 2010 after the country was awarded the hosting rights of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. However, concerns arose surrounding Qatar's high temperatures during the summer period.
On 25 February 2015, this resulted in FIFA announcing that it would move the 2021 Confederations Cup to another country of the Asian Football Confederation, so it could still be held during the traditional window of June/July 2021, without interrupting domestic leagues. As compensation, another FIFA tournament the 2021 FIFA Club World Cup, could be held in Qatar in November/December 2021, as the test event for the 2022 World Cup. In October 2017, FIFA divulged plans to abolish the Confederations Cup by 2021 and replace it with a quadrennial, twenty-four team FIFA Club World Cup and move the latter tournament from December to June. On 15 March 2019, FIFA announced that the Confederations Cup would be abolished, with the 2021 FIFA Club World Cup taking place instead; the eight qualified teams are drawn into two round-robin groups: two teams from the same confederation cannot be drawn in a group, except if there are three teams from the same confederation. Every team plays all other teams in their group once, for a total three matches.
The top two teams of each group advance to the semi-finals, with the winners of each group playing the runners-up of the other group. The rankings of teams in each group are determined as follows: If two or more teams are equal on the basis of the above three criteria, their rankings are determined as follows: The winners of the semi-finals advanced to the final, while the losers played in the third-place game. For the knockout stage if the score was drawn at the end of regular time, extra time was played and followed, if necessary, by a penalty shoot-out to determine the winner; the first two editions were in fact the defunct King Fahd Cup. FIFA recognized them retroactively as Confederations Cup editions. *: Hosts FIFA Confederations Cup on FIFA.com
1986 FIFA World Cup
The 1986 FIFA World Cup, the 13th FIFA World Cup, was held in Mexico from 31 May to 29 June 1986. The tournament was the second to feature a 24-team format. With European nations not allowed to host after the previous World Cup in Spain, Colombia had been chosen to host the competition by FIFA but due to economic reasons, was not able to do so and resigned in 1982. Mexico was selected as the new host in May 1983, thus becoming the first country to host the World Cup more than once; this was the third FIFA World Cup tournament in succession, hosted by a Spanish-speaking country, after Argentina 1978, Spain 1982. It was won by Argentina. Argentina was captained by the 25-year old Diego Maradona, who played a large part in his team's success. Maradona scored the "Hand of God" goal, as well as another voted "Goal of the Century", in the same quarter-final against England; these were two of the five goals that Maradona scored during the tournament, he created another five for his teammates. Argentina beat West Germany 3–2 in the final at Mexico City's Estadio Azteca.
Total attendance was 2,394,031, an average per match of 46,039. Canada and Iraq made their first appearances at the final stage; the format of the competition changed from 1982. The final pair of matches in each group started at the same time and the second round was played on a knock-out basis rather than groups; the 24 teams qualified were divided into six groups of four. The top two teams and the four best third-place finishers from the six groups advanced to the knockout round of 16 teams. Italy were the defending champions, but were eliminated by France in the Round of 16; the 1986 World Cup saw the appearance of an audience phenomenon dubbed the Mexican wave, popularised worldwide after featuring during the tournament. Colombia was chosen as hosts by FIFA in June 1974. However, the Colombian authorities declared on 5 November 1982 that they could not afford to host the World Cup under the terms that FIFA demanded because of economic concerns. Mexico was selected on 20 May 1983 as the replacement hosts, beating the bids of Canada and the United States, thereby became the first nation to host two World Cups.
This second World Cup in Mexico came 16 years after the first one in 1970. A severe earthquake in September 1985, eight months before the tournament, cast doubt over Mexico's ability to organize the event, but the stadia were not affected and it was decided to go ahead with the preparations; as 1986 had been declared the International Year of Peace by the United Nations, the advertising boards of all the stadia displayed the FIFA and United Nations logos along with the legend "Football for Peace – Peace Year". For the design of the logo an unofficial motto was adopted: "El Mundo Unido por Un Balón"; the official mascot of the 1986 World Cup was Pique, a jalapeño pepper, characteristic of Mexican cuisine, with a moustache, a Colimote sombrero, Mexican football team colours. Its name comes from picante, Spanish for spicy, was a pun on the "PK" abbreviation of the football term penalty kick; the character caused a degree of controversy within Mexico for its ethnic stereotypes. Three teams qualified for the World Cup for the first time: Canada and Iraq.
Canada clinched its spot after winning the final match against Honduras 2–1 in St. John's, Newfoundland. Iraq played. South Korea qualified for the first time since 1954, Paraguay for the first time since 1958, Portugal for the first time since 1966 and Bulgaria and Uruguay for the first time since 1974; as of 2018, this was the last time that Hungary, Canada and Northern Ireland qualified for the finals. In addition, this was the last time that the United States did not qualify for the finals until the 2018 tournament; the following 24 teams qualified for the final tournament. Eleven cities hosted the tournament; the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City, the largest stadium used for the tournament, hosted nine matches, more than any other stadium used. Mexico City hosted. Guadalajara, Mexico's second largest city hosted 10 total matches, Monterrey hosted 8 matches, the Cuauhtémoc Stadium in Puebla hosted 5 matches; the hot and rainy summer weather in Mexico varied from humid desert locations like Monterrey to tropical locations such as Guadalajara.
With the exception of the 93-104 °F temperatures of Monterrey, all of the stadia were located in cities that varied anywhere from Guadalajara being 5,138 feet above sea level to Toluca being 8,730 feet above sea level, making conditions difficult for the players running around in these stadia- but the higher the cities, the less intense the heat. Mexico City, the location of the final match and the location where the most matches were played was 7,380 feet above sea level and the weather there was not as hot as in other cities used in this World Cup. All of these venues except Monterrey were located in central Mexico, as this tournament was organized with the the
Aalborg Boldspilklub
AaB, internationally referred to as Aalborg BK is a professional football team located in Aalborg. The club is represented in the Danish Superliga and has won four Danish football Championships and three Danish Cup trophies. Most the team won the double in 2014. In 1995 AaB became the first Danish team to participate in the UEFA Champions League group stage AaB was awarded a place because Dynamo Kiev was expelled from the tournament after one game for attempted match-fixing. AaB qualified for the 2008–09 Champions League and is with two participants the Danish club who has participated the second most in the tournament after FC Copenhagen. Aalborg BK was part of the top-flight Danish leagues from the 1928–29 season, until the relegation of the club in 1947; the club returned to the best league in 1963, except from the years of 1972, 1978 and 1981–1986, Aalborg BK has since been a part of the various editions of the Danish football championship. Despite its many years in the Danish championship, the club never won a championship title, but Aalborg BK won the Danish Cup competition in 1966 and 1970.
Paid football was introduced in Denmark by the Danish Football Association in 1978. As Aalborg BK returned to the best Danish league, the club founded the professional branch of AaB A/S in 1987 to run a professional football team. Through the 1990s, the club won its first two Danish championships. In the Danish Superliga 1994-95 season, 24 goals from league topscorer Erik Bo Andersen secured the championship title for the team of coach Poul Erik Andreasen; the club was eliminated by Dynamo Kyiv in the qualification matches for the UEFA Champions League 1995-96, but following a bribing scandal Kyiv was banned from the tournament and Aalborg BK entered in their place. Aalborg BK thus became the first Danish team to compete in the UEFA Champions League; as they managed a 2–1 home win over Panathinaikos and a 2–2 draw with Porto in the six matches the club played in the initial group stage, Aalborg BK was eliminated. Erik Bo Andersen left the club for Scottish club Rangers, but in Søren Frederiksen, the club found its next goal-getter.
Though not the league top scorer, Frederiksen scored 17 goals in the Danish Superliga 1998-99 which the club won under guidance of Swedish coach Hans Backe. Once again, Aalborg BK faced Dinamo Kyiv in the Champions League qualification, but again felt short, losing 1–2 at home and drawing 2–2 in Kyiv after a late Aalborg BK goal was disallowed for being behind the goal line. Since the club established itself in the top half of the Superliga and won a bronze medal and qualified for the 2007 UEFA Intertoto Cup. Aalborg beat Honka on the away goals rule in the second round, in the third and final round Aalborg BK faced Gent and drew, 1–1, in the away game but beat them 2–1 in the following home match, thus they "won" a place in the UEFA Cup's second qualification round and met HJK, the first match ended 2–1 to Helsinki, but in the last match Aalborg BK won 3–0 and were thus ready for the UEFA Cup 2007-08. Drawing the Italian team Sampdoria in the First Round, which have Antonio Cassano and Vincenzo Montella as notable players, made the task seem impossible.
Aalborg made it again on the away goal rule, qualified for the group stage – being the first Danish team to send an Italian team "out of Europe." In the group stage Aalborg BK was seeded in the lowest pot, drew Anderlecht, Tottenham Hotspur and Hapoel Tel Aviv. Drawing with Anderlecht at home, losing 2–3 to Tottenham forced Aalborg to win at home against Getafe, a match Aalborg BK lost 1–2. In the 2007–08 season, Aalborg won their third Danish Championship and qualified for the 2008–09 UEFA Champions League qualifying rounds. In the second qualifying round, Aalborg eliminated FK Modriča 7–1 on aggregate. In the third round, before the group stage, they defeated FBK Kaunas 2–0 both at home and away and reached the group stage of the Champions League for the second time, the first time a Danish team achieved this. In the group stage, they were drawn in Group E along with defending champions Manchester United and Celtic. Aalborg finished third in the group, ahead of Celtic, with 6 points and progressed to the 2008–09 UEFA Cup knockout stage.
Their first match in their UEFA Cup run was against Spanish side Deportivo de La Coruña. Aalborg BK won the first leg at home 3–0 and the second leg at the Estadio Riazor 1–3, securing a 6–1 aggregate. Aalborg BK thereby earned a place among the last 16 teams. Where they faced Manchester City. After a 2–0 loss in Manchester in the first leg Aalborg BK fought back to tie the score with a 2–0 win at home; the tie ended in agony however. On 11 May 2014, the club won their 4th Danish Championship, four days the double was secured, as the club defeated F. C. Copenhagen 4–2 in the Cup final. Since 1920, Aalborg BK has played its games at Aalborg Stadion; the stadium was opened on 18 July 1920 with a north-south aligned playing field. The first spectator seats was built in 1927, in 1937 a wooden terrace for 3,000 standing spectators was built. In 1960, the stadium burned down and a new east-western aligned concrete stadium was opened in 1962. In recent years the stadium have been enlarged and rebuilt so that it now has modern facilities and roof over all spectator stands.
The stadium has the capacity of 13,997 people or 10,500 people. As of 31 January 2019Note: Flags indicate national team. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality. Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than o
