1.
Opole
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Opole is a city located in southern Poland on the Oder River. With a population of approximately 127,792, it is the capital of the Opole Voivodeship and, with it long history dating back to the 9th century, Opole is considered to be one of the oldest towns in Poland. The origins of the first settlement are connected with the town being granted Magdeburg Rights in 1217 by Casimir I of Opole, the rapid development of the town was also caused by the establishment of a seat of regency in Opole in 1816. During its existence Opole belonged to Poland, Bohemia, Prussia, prior to World War II it was located in eastern Germany and was one of the largest centres of Polish minority in the entire country. In 1945, according to Yalta and Potsdam Agreements, the region was assigned to Poland, many German Upper Silesians and Poles of German ancestry still live in the Opole region, in the city itself, however, ethnic Germans make up less than 3% of the population. It was also the capital of the region of Upper Silesia. The National Festival of Polish Song has been held annually since 1963 and each year new regular events, fairs, shows. Opole is sometimes referred to as Polish Venice, because of its picturesque Old Town and several canals, the name Opole likely originated from the medieval Slavic term for a group of settlements. Opoles history begins in the 8th century, at this time, according to the archeological excavations, the first Slavic settlement was founded on the Ostrówek - the northern part of the Pasieka Island in the middle of the Oder river. In the early 10th century it developed one of the main gróds of the Slavic Opolanie. At the end of the century Silesia became part of Poland and was ruled by the Piast dynasty, from the 11th-12th centuries it was also a castellany. After the death of Duke Władysław II the Exile, Silesia was divided in 1163 between two Piast lines- the Wrocławska line in Lower Silesia and the Opolsko-Raciborska of Upper Silesia. Opole would become a duchy in 1172 and would share much in common with the Duchy of Racibórz, in 1281 Upper Silesia was divided further between the heirs of the dukes. The Duchy of Opole was temporarily reestablished in 1290, in the early 13th century, Duke Casimir I of Opole decided to move the settlement from the Pasieka Island into the right shore of the Oder river. All of the inhabitants had to be moved in order to place for the castle that was eventually built in the place of the old city. Former inhabitants of Ostrówek together with German merchants that immigrated here from the West, Opole received German town law in 1254, which was expanded with Neumarkt law in 1327. Opole developed during the rule of duke Bolko I of Opole, in this time the castle was finally completed and new buildings, including the city walls and the Holy Cross Church, were constructed. Along with most of Silesia, in 1327 the Duchy of Opole came under the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Bohemia, in 1521 the Duchy of Racibórz was inherited by the Duchy of Opole, by then also known by its German equivalent - Oppeln
2.
Forward (association football)
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Forwards are the players on an association football team who play nearest to the opposing teams goal, and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals. Their advanced position and limited defensive responsibilities mean forwards normally score more goals on behalf of their team than other players, modern team formations generally include one to three forwards, for example, the common 4–2–3–1 formation includes one forward. Unconventional formations may include more than three forwards, or none, the centre-forward is often a tall player, typically known as a target man, whose main function is to score the majority of goals on behalf of the team. Most modern centre-forwards operate in front of the strikers or central attacking midfielders. The present role of centre-forward is sometimes interchangeable with that of an attacking midfielder, a centre-forward usually must be strong, to win key headers and outmuscle defenders. The term centre-forward is taken from the football playing formation in which there were five forward players. The number would become synonymous with the centre-forward position. Strikers are known for their ability to peel off defenders and to run into space via the side of the defender and to receive the ball in a good goalscoring position. They are typically fast players with ball control and dribbling abilities. More agile strikers like Michael Owen have an advantage over taller defenders due to their short burst speed, a good striker should be able to shoot confidently with either foot, possess great power and accuracy, and have the ability to pass the ball under pressure in breakaway situations. Deep-lying forwards have a history in the game, but the terminology to describe their playing activity has varied over the years. Originally such players were termed inside forwards, creative or deep-lying centre-forwards, in fact, a coined term, the nine-and-a-half, has been an attempt to become a standard in defining the position. In Italy, this role is known as a rifinitore or seconda punta, whereas in Brazil, it is known as segundo atacante. An outside forward plays as the forward on the right or left wing – as an outside right or outside left. As football tactics have largely developed, and wingers have dropped back to become midfielders, many commentators and football analysts still refer to the wing positions as outside right and outside left. However, in the British game they are counted as part of the midfield. It is a duty to beat opposing full-backs, deliver cut-backs or crosses from wide positions and, to a lesser extent, to beat defenders. They are usually some of the quickest players in the team, in their Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese usage, the defensive duties of the winger have been usually confined to pressing the opposition fullbacks when they have the ball
3.
FC Bayern Munich
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Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. commonly known as FC Bayern München, FCB, Bayern Munich, or FC Bayern, is a German sports club based in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. FC Bayern was founded in 1900 by 11 football players, led by Franz John, although Bayern won its first national championship in 1932, the club was not selected for the Bundesliga at its inception in 1963. The club had its period of greatest success in the middle of the 1970s when, under the captaincy of Franz Beckenbauer, overall, Bayern has reached ten European Cup/UEFA Champions League finals, most recently winning their fifth title in 2013 as part of a continental treble. Since the formation of the Bundesliga, Bayern has been the dominant club in German football with 26 titles and has won 8 of the last 12 titles and they have traditional local rivalries with 1860 Munich and 1. FC Nürnberg, as well as with Borussia Dortmund since the mid-1990s, since the beginning of the 2005–06 season, Bayern has played its home games at the Allianz Arena. Previously the team had played at Munichs Olympiastadion for 33 years, the team colours are red and white, and the team crest shows the white and blue flag of Bavaria. In terms of revenue, Bayern Munich is the biggest sports club in Germany, as of November 2016, Bayern has over 284,000 members. There are more than 4,000 officially-registered fan clubs with over 314,000 members, the club has other departments for chess, handball, basketball, gymnastics, bowling, table tennis and senior football with more than 1,100 active members. FC Bayern is ranked second in the current UEFA club coefficient rankings, FC Bayern Munich was founded by members of a Munich gymnastics club. Within a few months, Bayern achieved high-scoring victories against all rivals, including a 15–0 win against FC Nordstern. In the following years, the club won some trophies and in 1910–11 Bayern joined the newly founded Kreisliga. The club won league in its first year, but did not win it again until the beginning of World War I in 1914. In the years after the war, Bayern won several regional competitions before winning its first South German championship in 1926, an achievement repeated two years later. Its first national title was gained in 1932, when coach Richard Little Dombi Kohn led the team to the German championship by defeating Eintracht Frankfurt 2–0 in the final, the advent of Nazism put an abrupt end to Bayerns development. Club president Kurt Landauer and the coach, both of whom were Jewish, left the country, many others in the club were also purged. Bayern was taunted as the Jews club, while local rival 1860 Munich gained much support, josef Sauter, who was inaugurated 1943, was the only NSDAP member as president. As some Bayern players greeted Landauer, who was watching a friendly in Switzerland lead to continued discrimination, Bayern was also affected by the ruling that football players had to be full amateurs again. In the following years, Bayern could not sustain its role of contender for the national title, after the war, Bayern became a member of the Oberliga Süd, the southern conference of the German first division, which was split five ways at that time
4.
FC 08 Homburg
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FC Homburg is a German association football club based in Homburg, Saarland. The club was founded on 15 June 1908 as Fussball Club Homburg by a group of seventeen young men at the local Hohenburg pub, in February 1913 they were re-named Fussballverein Homburg and went on to take the local championship that season. By the mid 20s the side was playing second division football, the footballers again took up play in second tier competition and failed in two attempts to win their way through the regional promotion playoff to the first division Gauliga Südwest. After World War II, Allied occupation authorities dissolved all types of associations in Germany, the club was soon re-constituted as Sportverein Homburg and captured a division championship in the Amateurliga Saarland in 1948 before resuming the name FC Homburg in January 1949. The Saarland was occupied by the French who made efforts to see the state become independent of Germany or join France. In sport this was manifested as separate 1952 Olympic and 1954 World Cup teams for Saarland, the establishment of a football league for the state. FC Saarbrücken playing in the French second division, Homburg played in the Saarland Ehrenliga from 1949 to 1951 as FC Homburg-Saar. A second Amateurliga Saarland title in 1957 advanced FC to the 2, liga-Südwest and in December of that year they adopted the name FC08 Homburg/Saar. The club was relegated to the Amateurliga in 1960 which had become a fourth tier circuit by 1963, in the late 1970s the team advanced to the quarter finals of the DFB-Pokal on two occasions, and on into the early 1980s moved frequently between third and fourth tier play. Then, in the half of the decade, they enjoyed their greatest success. They played their way back to the division and on into the Bundesliga in 1986. The club had a moment of glory in 1991 when it beat FC Bayern Munich in Munich 4–2 after extra time in the first round of the 1991–92 DFB-Pokal and they were relegated from the Second Bundesliga after the 1994–95 season. Along the way the club had a couple of misadventures, in 1988, the DFB prohibited the team from wearing the sponsorship logo of a condom manufacturer on ethical and moral grounds. In 1998, they entered into an agreement with 1, FC Saarbrücken to loan players to that team to help ease Homburgs financial pinch. Despite this, in 1999, the club had a brush with bankruptcy that led to their being denied a license to play in the Regionalliga West/Südwest, the club qualified for the 2006–07 German Cup and went out in the first round 1–2 to Bundesliga side VfL Bochum. Homburg was finally promoted to Regionalliga West after finishing atop the Oberliga Südwest ahead of FK Pirmasens on a differential of plus 2 in the 2009–10 season. Their Regionalliga cameo ended with a 17th place finish and a return to fifth tier play, Homburg immediately bounced back by capturing the Oberliga Südwest title and qualifying for the Regionalliga Südwest for 2012–13. The clubs honours, Recent managers of the club, The recent season-by-season performance of the club, With the introduction of the Regionalligas in 1994, liga in 2008 as the new third tier, below the 2
5.
1. FC Kaiserslautern
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Fußball-Club Kaiserslautern e. V. also known as 1. FC Kaiserslautern, is a club based in Kaiserslautern, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is internationally known, especially through its football division, on 2 June 1900, Germania 1896 and FG Kaiserslautern merged to create FC1900. In 1909, the club went on to join FC Palatia, in 1929, they merged with SV Phönix to become FV Phönix-Kaiserslautern before finally taking on their current name three years later. As a founding member of the Bundesliga the FCK played from 1963 to 1996 through in the first league, Kaiserslautern have won four German championships, two DFB-Pokals, and one DFL-Supercup and is by titles among the most successful football clubs in Germany. The FCK currently occupies the place in the All-time Bundesliga table. The clubs international successes included reaching the Champions League quarter-finals in 1999 as well as participation in the UEFA Cup semi-final. Kaiserslautern won the German championship in the 1997/98 season as a promoter which is unique in German football, since 1920, Kaiserslauterns stadium is the Fritz-Walter-Stadion, named after the captain of the DFB national team, who won the world title in 1954. In addition to the division, it operates also in basketball, boxing, handball, hockey, running, athletics, wheelchair basketball. Two of the predecessors, Bavaria and FC1900 Kaiserslautern, were part of the Westkreis-Liga when this league was formed in 1908. From 1909 through 1918, the new FV Kaiserslautern performed well, the clubs performance was unremarkable in the years leading up to World War II, but improved after 1939. They captured the Gauliga Südwest/Staffel Saarpfalz title, but lost the division title to Staffel Mainhessen winners Kickers Offenbach. They were decisively put out 3–9 by eventual champions Schalke 04, the performance of the team slipped and they finished last in their division in 1944. The following year saw the collapse of league play in part of Germany as the Third Reich crumbled under the advance of Allied armies. After the war, Southwestern Germany was part of the occupation zone held by the French, teams there were organized into northern and southern divisions and played to determine which of them would join the new Oberliga being put together. FC Kaiserslautern resumed play in the Oberliga Südwest in 1945 and finished the season just one point behind 1 and this marked the beginning of the clubs dominance of the Oberliga Südwest as they went on to capture the division title eleven times over the next twelve seasons. FCK advanced to Germanys first post-war national final in 1948, Kaiserslautern became a presence on the national scene through the early 1950s, capturing their first German championship in 1951 with a 2–1 victory of their own, this time over Preußen Münster. They won a title in 1953, followed by two losing final appearances in 1954 and 1955
6.
SV Werder Bremen
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Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899 e. V. commonly known as Werder Bremen, is a German sports club located in Bremen in the northwest German federal state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. The club was founded in 1899 and has grown to 40,400 members and it is best known for its association football team. Bremens football club has been a mainstay in the Bundesliga, the top league of the German football league system, Bremen have won the Bundesliga championship four times and the DFB-Pokal six times. Their latest Bundesliga championship came in 2004, when they won a double, Bremen have also had European success, winning the 1992 European Cup Winners Cup. Since 1924, Werder Bremens stadium is the Weserstadion, Werder Bremens coach Viktor Skrypnyk was dismissed in September 2016. Werder Bremen has a rivalry with Hamburger SV, another Bundesliga club in northern Germany, the club was founded on 4 February 1899 as Fußballverein Werder by a group of 16 vocational high school students who had won a prize of sports equipment. The students took the name from the seldom-used regional German word for river peninsula. The predecessor to Bremen, known as SV Werder, played its first ever match on 10 September 1899 against ASC1898 Bremen coming away with a 1–0 victory, in 1900, FV Bremen was represented at the founding of the German Football Association at Leipzig. The club then enjoyed some success, fielding competitive sides. They became the first club to charge spectators a fee to attend their games, in April 1914, the club became a department of Allgemeiner Bremer Turnverein 1860 and was briefly known as Sportabteilung Werder des ABTV. The relationship was short-lived, however, and the club went its own way again less than two months later, steady growth after World War I led the club to adopt other sports and, on 19 January 1920, change their name to the current Sportverein Werder Bremen. Football remained their primary interest, so much so that in 1922, the team made regular appearances in year-end NFV qualification round play through the 1920s and on into the early 1930s, but did not enjoy any success. German football was re-organized under the Third Reich in 1933 into 16 first division known as Gauligen. The club scored its first real successes, capturing titles in 1934,1936, and 1937. The shape of the Gauligen changed through the course of World War II and in 1939, SV played in the Gauliga Niedersachsen/Nord where they captured a fourth title in 1942. As the war overtook the country, the Gauligen became progressively more local in character, the Gauliga Niedersachsen/Nord became the Gauliga Weser-Ems and then the Gauliga Weser-Ems/Bremen over the next two years. Werders 1944–45 season was cut short after just two matches, like other organizations throughout Germany, the club was disbanded on the order of the occupying Allied authorities after the war. They re-constituted themselves on 10 November 1945 as Turn- und Sportverein Werder 1945 Bremen, the team played in the Stadtliga Bremen, and after capturing the title there, participated in the northern German championship round, advancing to the quarter-finals
7.
S.S. Lazio
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Società Sportiva Lazio, commonly referred to as Lazio, is a professional Italian sports club based in Rome, most known for its football activity. The society, founded in 1900, play in the Serie A and have spent most of their history in the top tier of Italian football. Lazio have been Italian champions twice, and have won the Coppa Italia six times, the club had their first major success in 1958, winning the domestic cup. In 1974, they won their first Serie A title, Lazios traditional kit colours are sky blue shirts and white shorts with white socks, the colours are reminiscent of Romes ancient Hellenic legacy. Sky blue socks have also been used as home colours. Their home is the 70,634 capacity Stadio Olimpico in Rome, Roma until the year 2018, when the latter will leave for the Stadio della Roma. Lazio have a rivalry with Roma, with whom they have contested the Derby della Capitale since 1929. Lazio is also a club that participate in 40 sports disciplines in total. Società Podistica Lazio was founded on 9 January 1900 in the Prati district of Rome, in 1927, Lazio was the only major Roman club which resisted the Fascist regimes attempts to merge all the citys teams into what would become A. S. The club played in the first organised Serie A in 1929 and, led by legendary Italian striker Silvio Piola, the 1950s produced a mix of mid and upper table results with a Coppa Italia win in 1958. Lazio was relegated for the first time in 1961 to the Serie B, after a number of mid-table placements, another relegation followed in 1970–71. Lazio improved such successes the following season, ensuring its first title in 1973–74, however, tragic deaths of Re Cecconi and Scudetto trainer Maestrelli, as well as the departure of Chinaglia, would be a triple blow for Lazio. The emergence of Bruno Giordano during this period provided some relief as he finished League top scorer in 1979, Lazio were forcibly relegated to Serie B in 1980 due to a remarkable scandal concerning illegal bets on their own matches, along with Milan. They remained in Italys second division for three seasons in what would mark the darkest period in Lazios history and they would return in 1983 and manage a last-day escape from relegation the following season. The 1984–85 season would prove harrowing, with a pitiful 15 points, in 1986, Lazio was hit with a nine-point deduction for a betting scandal involving player Claudio Vinazzani. The arrival of Sergio Cragnotti in 1992 changed the clubs due to his long-term investments in new players to make the team a Scudetto competitor. A notable early transfer during his tenure was the capture of English midfielder Paul Gascoigne from Tottenham Hotspur for £5.5 million, gascoignes transfer to Lazio is credited with the increase of interest in Serie A in the United Kingdom during the 1990s. Lazio had two more Coppa Italia triumphs in 1998 and 2004, as well as the last ever UEFA Cup Winners Cup in 1999 and they also reached the UEFA Cup, but lost 0–3 against Internazionale
8.
Germany national football team
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The Germany national football team is the mens football team that has represented Germany in international competition since 1908. It is governed by the German Football Association, founded in 1900, ever since the DFB was reinaugurated in 1949 the team has represented the Federal Republic of Germany. 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 teams in international competitions, having won a total of four World Cups. They have also been three times in the European Championships, four times in the World Cup, and 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 mens and womens World Cups. At the end of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Germany earned the highest Elo rating of any football team in history. Germany is also the only European nation that has won a FIFA World Cup in the Americas, the current manager of the national team is Joachim Löw. Germanys first championship title was won in Switzerland. At that time the players were selected by the DFB, as there was no dedicated coach, 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. After a poor showing at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, in 1937 he put together a squad which was soon nicknamed the Breslau Elf in recognition of their 8–0 win over Denmark in the then German city of Breslau, Lower Silesia. In the 1938 World Cup that began on 4 June, this united German team managed only a 1–1 draw against Switzerland and that early exit stands as Germanys worst World Cup result. During World War II, the team played over 30 international games between September 1939 and November 1942, when national team games were suspended, as most players had to join the armed forces. After the Second World War, Germany was banned from competition in most sports until 1950, the DFB was not a full member of FIFA, and none of the three new German states — West Germany, East Germany, and Saarland — entered the 1950 World Cup qualifiers. The Federal Republic of Germany, which was referred to as West Germany, with recognition by FIFA and UEFA, the DFB maintained and 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, and was barred from participating in pan-German ones and it sent their own team to the 1952 Summer Olympics and 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
9.
FIFA World Cup
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The championship has been awarded every four years since the inaugural tournament in 1930, except in 1942 and 1946 when it was not held because of the Second World War. The current champion is Germany, which won its title at the 2014 tournament in Brazil. 32 teams, including the qualifying host nation, compete in the tournament phase for the title at venues within the host nation over a period of about a month. The 20 World Cup tournaments have been won by eight different national teams, Brazil have won five times, and they are the only team to have played in every tournament. The worlds first international match was a challenge match played in Glasgow in 1872 between Scotland and England, which ended in a 0–0 draw. The first international tournament, the edition of the British Home Championship. After FIFA was founded in 1904, it tried to arrange an international football tournament between nations outside the Olympic framework in Switzerland in 1906 and these were very early days for international football, and the official history of FIFA describes the competition as having been a failure. At the 1908 Summer Olympics in London, football became an official competition, planned by The Football Association, Englands football governing body, the event was for amateur players only and was regarded suspiciously as a show rather than a competition. Great Britain won the gold medals and they repeated the feat in 1912 in Stockholm. With the Olympic event continuing to be contested only between teams, Sir Thomas Lipton organised the Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy tournament in Turin in 1909. The Lipton tournament was a championship between clubs from different nations, each one of which represented an entire nation. Lipton invited West Auckland, a side from County Durham. West Auckland won the tournament and returned in 1911 to successfully defend their title, in 1914, FIFA agreed to recognise the Olympic tournament as a world football championship for amateurs, and took responsibility for managing the event. This paved the way for the worlds first intercontinental football competition, at the 1920 Summer Olympics, contested by Egypt and 13 European teams, Uruguay won the next two Olympic football tournaments in 1924 and 1928. Those were also the first two world championships, as 1924 was the start of FIFAs professional era. On 28 May 1928, the FIFA Congress in Amsterdam decided to stage a championship itself. With Uruguay now two-time official football world champions and to celebrate their centenary of independence in 1930, indeed, no European country pledged to send a team until two months before the start of the competition. Rimet eventually persuaded teams from Belgium, France, Romania, in total,13 nations took part, seven from South America, four from Europe and two from North America
10.
2014 FIFA World Cup
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The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for mens national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014 and it was the second time that Brazil staged the competition, and the fifth time that it was held in South America. Thirty-one national teams advanced through qualification competitions to join the host nation in the final tournament, a total of 64 matches were played in 12 venues located in as many host cities across Brazil. For the first time at a World Cup finals, match officials used goal-line technology, FIFA Fan Fests in each host city gathered a total of 5 million people, and the country received 1 million visitors from 202 countries. Every World Cup-winning team since the first edition in 1930 – Argentina, Brazil, England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Spain, the title holders, were eliminated at the group stage, along with England and Italy. Uruguay were eliminated in the round of 16, and France exited in the quarter-finals, Brazil, who had won the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup, lost to Germany 7–1 in the semi-finals and eventually finished in fourth place. Germany became the first European team to win a World Cup staged in the Americas, as the winners, Germany qualified for the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup in Russia. With 2010 FIFA World Cup hosted in South Africa, it would be the second consecutive World Cup outside of Europe and it was also second in the Southern Hemisphere. Only Brazil and Colombia formally declared their candidacy but, after the withdrawal of the latter from the process, following qualification matches played between June 2011 and November 2013, the following 32 teams – shown with their last pre-tournament FIFA world ranking – qualified for the final tournament. Twenty-four of these teams were returning participants from the 2010 World Cup, Bosnia and Herzegovina were the only team with no previous appearance at the World Cup finals. Colombia qualified for the World Cup after 16 years of absence, while Russia, the highest ranked team to not qualify was Ukraine, while the lowest ranked team that did qualify was Australia. The 32 participating teams were drawn into eight groups, in preparation for this, the teams were organised into four pots with the seven highest-ranked teams joining host nation Brazil in the seeded pot. As with the tournaments, FIFA aimed to create groups which maximised geographic separation. The draw took place on 6 December 2013 at the Costa do Sauípe resort in Bahia, under the draw procedure, one randomly drawn team – Italy – was firstly relocated from Pot 4 to Pot 2 to create four equal pots of eight teams. In March 2013, FIFA published a list of 52 prospective referees, each paired, on the basis of nationality, on 14 January 2014, the FIFA Referees Committee appointed 25 referee trios and eight support duos representing 43 different countries for the tournament. Yuichi Nishimura from Japan acted as referee in the opening match whereas Nicola Rizzoli from Italy acted as referee in the final, as with the 2010 tournament, each teams squad consists of 23 players. Each participating national association had to confirm their final 23-player squad no later than 10 days before the start of the tournament, teams were permitted to make late replacements in the event of serious injury, at any time up to 24 hours before their first game. During a match, all remaining squad members not named in the team are available to be one of the three permitted substitutions
11.
2002 FIFA World Cup
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The 2002 FIFA World Cup was the 17th staging of the FIFA World Cup which took place from 31 May to 30 June 2002 in South Korea and Japan. Brazil won the tournament for a fifth time, winning the final against Germany 2–0. The victory meant Brazil qualified for the 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup for the fifth time, in the third place play-off match against South Korea, Turkey won 3–2 taking third place in only their second ever FIFA World Cup finals. China PR, Ecuador, Senegal and Slovenia made their first appearances at the finals with Turkey making its first appearance since 1954, additionally, Turkey took third place and South Korea managed to reach the semi-finals, beating Spain, Italy and Portugal en route. South Korea in particular, faced scrutiny and allegations of corruption due to their victories over Italy. However, the most potent team at the tournament, Brazil, prevailed, South Korea and Japan were selected as hosts by FIFA on 31 May 1996. Initially, South Korea, Japan, and Mexico presented three rival bids, however, the two Asian countries agreed to unite their bids shortly before the decision was made, and they were chosen unanimously in preference to Mexico. This was the first World Cup to be hosted by two countries, at the time the decision was made, Japan had never qualified for a World Cup finals. The only other countries to have awarded a World Cup without previously having competed in a final tournament are Italy in 1934. The unusual choice of host proved an issue for fans in Europe. With games taking place in the European morning, some schools, a total of 199 teams attempted to qualify for the 2002 World Cup which qualification process began with the preliminary draw held in Tokyo on 7 December 1999. Defending champions France and co-hosts South Korea and Japan qualified automatically and this was the final World Cup in which the defending champions qualified automatically. 14 places were contested by UEFA teams, five by CAF teams, four by CONMEBOL teams, four by AFC teams, the remaining two places were decided by playoffs between AFC and UEFA and between CONMEBOL and OFC. Four nations qualified for the finals for the first time, China, Ecuador, Senegal, as of 2014, this was the last time Turkey, China, Republic of Ireland and Senegal qualified for a FIFA World Cup finals. Turkey qualified for the first time since 1954, and both Poland and Portugal for the first time since 1986, all seven previous World Cup-winning nations qualified, the first time so many previous champions had been present at a finals tournament. The following 32 teams, shown with final pre-tournament rankings, qualified for the final tournament, the seeds comprised Pot A in the draw. Pot B contained the remaining 11 European sides, Pot C contained five unseeded qualifiers from CONMEBOL, Pot D contained unseeded sides from the CONCACAF region and Africa. This was the last FIFA World Cup with the champion in Group A
12.
2006 FIFA World Cup
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The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, teams representing 198 national football associations from all six populated continents participated in the qualification process which began in September 2003. Thirty-one teams qualified from this process, along with the host nation, Germany and it was the second time that Germany staged the competition, and the tenth time that it was held in Europe. Italy won the tournament, claiming their fourth World Cup title and they defeated France 5–3 in a penalty shootout in the final, after extra time had finished in a 1–1 draw. Germany defeated Portugal 3–1 to finish in third place, Angola, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Serbia and Montenegro, Trinidad and Tobago, and Togo made their first appearances in the finals. The 2006 World Cup stands as one of the most watched events in history, garnering an estimated 26.29 billion non-unique viewers. The final attracted an audience of 715.1 million people. The 2006 World Cup ranks fourth in non-unique viewers, behind the World Cup in 1994,2002, as the winner, Italy represented the World in the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup. The vote to choose the hosts of the 2006 tournament was held in July 2000 in Zürich and it involved four bidding nations after Brazil had withdrawn three days earlier, Germany, South Africa, England and Morocco. Three rounds of voting were required, each round eliminating the nation with the least votes, the first two rounds were held on 6 July 2000, and the final round was held on 7 July 2000, which Germany won over South Africa. Accusations of bribery and corruption have marred the success of Germanys bid from the very beginning, on the very day of the vote, a hoax bribery affair was made public, leading to calls for a re-vote. Oceania delegate Charlie Dempsey, who had initially backed England, had then been instructed to support South Africa following Englands elimination and he abstained, citing intolerable pressure on the eve of the vote. Just a week before the vote, the German government under Chancellor Gerhard Schröder lifted their arms embargo on Saudi Arabia, daimlerChrysler invested several hundred million Euro in Hyundai, while one of the sons of the companys founders was a member of FIFAs executive committee. Both Volkswagen and Bayer announced investments in Thailand and South Korea, whose respective delegates Worawi Makudi, the sum of 6.7 million Euro was later demanded back by Dreyfus. In order to retrieve the money, the Organizing Committee paid an aquivalent sum to the FIFA, allegedly as a German share for the cost of a closing ceremony, the DFB announced they would consider seeking legal action against Der Spiegel. During a press conference on 22 October 2015, Nierbach repeated his stance, according to Niersbach, the payment had been agreed upon during a meeting between Franz Beckenbauer and FIFA president Blatter, with the money being provided by Dreyfus. On the same day, FIFA contradicted Niersbachs statement, saying, By our current state of knowledge, the following day, former DFB president Theo Zwanziger publicly accused Niersbach of lying, saying, It is evident that there was a slush fund for the German World Cup application. According to Zwanziger, the 6.7 million Euros went to Mohamed Bin Hammam, on 22 March 2016 it was announced that the FIFA Ethics Committee was opening proceedings into the bid
13.
2010 FIFA World Cup
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The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for mens national association football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010, the matches were played in 10 stadiums in nine host cities around the country, with the final played at the Soccer City stadium in South Africas largest city, Johannesburg. Thirty-two teams were selected for participation via a qualification tournament that began in August 2007. In the first round of the tournament finals, the competed in round-robin groups of four teams for points. These 16 teams advanced to the stage, where three rounds of play decided which teams would participate in the final. In the final, Spain, the European champions, defeated the Netherlands 1–0 after extra time, as a result of their win, Spain represented the World in the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup. Host nation South Africa,2006 champions Italy and 2006 runners-up France were all eliminated in the first round of the tournament and it was the first time that the hosts had been eliminated in the first round. New Zealand, with their three draws, were the undefeated team in the tournament, but they were also eliminated in the first round. Africa was chosen as the host for the 2010 World Cup as part of a policy, abandoned in 2007. Five African nations placed bids to host the 2010 World Cup, Egypt, Morocco, South Africa, following the decision of the FIFA Executive Committee not to allow co-hosted tournaments, Tunisia withdrew from the bidding process. The committee also decided not to consider Libyas solo bid as it no longer met all the stipulations laid down in the official List of Requirements. South Africa, which had failed to win the right to host the 2006 event, was thus awarded the right to host the tournament. Having successfully campaigned for South Africa to be granted host status, during 2006 and 2007, rumours circulated in various news sources that the 2010 World Cup could be moved to another country. Franz Beckenbauer, Horst R. Schmidt and, reportedly, some FIFA executives, expressed concern over the planning, organisation, and pace of South Africas preparations. Blazer stated, I and others on the Fifa executive committee agreed to accept bribes in conjunction with the selection of South Africa as the host nation for the 2010 World Cup. On 6 June 2015, The Daily Telegraph reported that Morocco had actually won the vote, the qualification draw for the 2010 World Cup was held in Durban on 25 November 2007. As the host nation, South Africa qualified automatically for the tournament, as happened in the previous tournament, the defending champions were not given an automatic berth, and Italy had to participate in qualification. With a pool of entrants comprising 204 of the 208 FIFA national teams at the time, some controversies arose during the qualifications
14.
UEFA European Championship
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Held every four years since 1960, in the even-numbered year between World Cup tournaments, it was originally called the UEFA European Nations Cup, changing to the current name in 1968. Starting with the 1996 tournament, specific championships are often referred to in the form UEFA Euro, prior to entering the tournament all teams other than the host nations compete in a qualifying process. The championship winners earn the opportunity to compete in the following FIFA Confederations Cup, to date, Spain is the only team in history to have won consecutive titles, doing so in 2008 and 2012. It is the second most watched football tournament in the world after the FIFA World Cup, the Euro 2012 final was watched by a global audience of around 300 million. The most recent championship, hosted by France in 2016, was won by Portugal, in honour of Delaunay, the trophy awarded to the champions is named after him. The 1960 tournament, held in France, had four competing in the finals out of 17 that entered the competition. It was won by the Soviet Union, beating Yugoslavia 2–1 in a final in Paris. Spain withdrew from its quarter-final match against the USSR because of two political protests, of the 17 teams that entered the qualifying tournament, notable absentees were England, the Netherlands, West Germany and Italy. The hosts beat the holders, the Soviet Union, 2–1 at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in Madrid. The tournament format stayed the same for the 1968 tournament, hosted, for the first and only time a match was decided on a coin toss and the final went to a replay, after the match against Yugoslavia finished 1–1. More teams entered this tournament, a testament to its burgeoning popularity, Belgium hosted the 1972 tournament, which West Germany won, beating the USSR 3–0 in the final, with goals coming from Gerd Müller and Herbert Wimmer at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels. This tournament would provide a taste of things to come, as the German side contained many of the key members of the 1974 FIFA World Cup Champions. The 1976 tournament in Yugoslavia was the last in which four teams took part in the final tournament. Czechoslovakia beat West Germany in the newly introduced penalty shootout, after seven successful conversions, Uli Hoeneß missed, leaving Czechoslovakian Antonín Panenka with the opportunity to score and win the tournament. An audacious chipped shot, described by UEFA as perhaps the most famous spot kick of all time secured the victory as Czechoslovakia won 5–3 on penalties, the competition was expanded to eight teams in the 1980 tournament, again hosted by Italy. It involved a stage, with the winners of the groups going on to contest the final. West Germany won their second European title by beating Belgium 2–1, Horst Hrubesch scored early in the first half before René Vandereycken equalised for Belgium with a penalty in the second half. With two minutes remaining, Hrubesch headed the winner for West Germany from a Karl-Heinz Rummenigge corner, the format also changed, with the top two teams in each group going through to a semi-final stage, instead of the winners of each group going straight into the final
15.
UEFA Euro 2008
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It took place in Austria and Switzerland from 7 to 29 June 2008. The tournament was won by Spain, who defeated Germany 1–0 in the final, Spain were only the second nation to win all their group stage fixtures and then the European Championship itself - an accomplishment matched by France in 1984. Spain were also the first team since Germany in 1996 to win the tournament undefeated, Greece were the defending champions going into the tournament, having won UEFA Euro 2004. They recorded the worst finish in Euro 2008, losing their three fixtures and collecting the least amount of prize money. Throughout 31 matches, the participating nations totalled 77 goals, the same as the previous tournament, Austria and Switzerland automatically qualified as hosts, the remaining 14 teams were determined through qualifying matches, which began in August 2006. As European champions, Spain earned the right to compete for the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup in South Africa, Austria had previously bid to host Euro 2004 with Hungary, but they eventually lost out to Portugal. Austria/Switzerland, Greece/Turkey, and Hungary were recommended before the final vote, Greece and Turkey were rejected and let Hungary and Austria/Switzerland battle for the win. The Austria/Switzerland bid is the successful joint bid in the competitions history, following the UEFA Euro 2000 hosted by Belgium. The following tournament, held in Poland and Ukraine, became the third jointly hosted tournament, qualification for Euro 2008 started in August 2006, just over a month after the end of the 2006 FIFA World Cup. England was the only seeded team not to qualify for the tournament proper, in contrast, Germany and Portugal were deemed to have an easy draw, as the tournament structure meant they could not meet Italy, France, the Netherlands or Spain until the final. In the group stage, Croatia, Spain and the Netherlands all qualified with maximum points, Austria and Switzerland were not expected to progress, despite the advantage of being the hosts. In Group A, the Swiss lost their captain, Alexander Frei, to injury in their first game and became the first team to be eliminated from the tournament, Switzerland managed to beat the group winner Portugal in their last game. In Group B, Austria managed to set up a final game against Germany. However, they lost by one goal, making Euro 2008 the first European Championship not to have one of the host nations present in the knockout phase, in the same game, goalkeeper Volkan Demirel was shown a red card for pushing Czech striker Jan Koller to the ground. The Turks joined Portugal as the qualifiers from Group A, France were the high-profile victims of Group C, recording just one point from a goalless draw against Romania in their opening game. Italy beat the French, on the day, to finish on four points. Finally, in Group D, Greece failed to reproduce the form of their shock 2004 win, Russia qualified at the expense of Sweden, after beating them in a final game decider, joining Spain in the knockout phase. Turkey continued their streak of wins, equalising at the end of extra-time against Croatia
16.
UEFA Euro 2012
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The 2012 UEFA European Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2012 or simply Euro 2012, was the 14th European Championship for mens national football teams organised by UEFA. Poland and Ukraines bid was chosen by UEFAs Executive Committee on 18 April 2007, the two host teams qualified automatically while the remaining 14 finalists were decided through a qualifying competition, featuring 51 teams, from August 2010 to November 2011. This was the last European Championship to employ the 16-team finals format in use since 1996, from Euro 2016 onward, Euro 2012 was played at eight venues, four in each host country. Five new stadiums were built for the tournament, and the hosts invested heavily in improving infrastructure such as railways, Euro 2012 set attendance records for the 16-team format, for the highest aggregate attendance and average per game. Spain became the first team to win two consecutive European Championships, and also three major tournaments. Spain had already gained entry to the 2013 Confederations Cup by winning the 2010 World Cup, as at Euro 2008 in Austria and Switzerland, both 2012 host nations were eliminated in the group stage. The hosting of the event was contested by five bids representing seven countries, Croatia–Hungary, Greece, Italy, Poland–Ukraine. In November 2005, after a consideration of the bid data by UEFA. In May 2006, this was followed by a round of the selection process. The final decision was due to be announced on 8 December 2006 in Nyon, on 18 April 2007, the Poland–Ukraine bid was chosen by a vote of the UEFA Executive Committee, at a meeting in Cardiff. Poland–Ukraine became the successful joint bid for the European Championship, after those of Belgium–Netherlands. Their bid received a majority of votes, and was therefore announced the winner. There were some alterations from the initial bid plan, regarding the venues. The draw for the UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying competition took place in Warsaw on 7 February 2010, fifty-one teams entered to compete for the fourteen remaining places in the finals, alongside co-hosts Poland and Ukraine. The teams were divided into nine groups, with the using the new UEFA national team coefficient for the first time in order to determine the seedings. As defending champions, Spain was automatically top seeded, the qualifying process began in August 2010 and concluded in November 2011. At the conclusion of the group stage in October 2011. The remaining eight-second placed teams contested two-legged play-offs, and the four qualified for the finals
17.
Polish language
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Polish is a West Slavic language spoken primarily in Poland and is the native language of the Poles. It belongs to the Lechitic subgroup of the West Slavic languages, Polish is the official language of Poland, but it is also used throughout the world by Polish minorities in other countries. It is one of the languages of the European Union. Its written standard is the Polish alphabet, which has 9 additions to the letters of the basic Latin script, Polish is closely related to Kashubian, Silesian, Upper Sorbian, Lower Sorbian, Czech and Slovak. It is also the second most widely spoken Slavic language, after Russian, in history, Polish is known to be an important language, both diplomatically and academically in Central and Eastern Europe. Today, Polish is spoken by over 38.5 million people as their first language in Poland. It is also spoken as a language in western parts of Belarus and Ukraine, west and central Lithuania, as well as the northern parts of the Czech Republic. There are 55 million Polish language speakers around the world, Polish began to emerge as a distinct language around the 10th century, the process largely triggered by the establishment and development of the Polish state. With Christianity, Poland also adopted the Latin alphabet, which made it possible to write down Polish, the precursor to modern Polish is the Old Polish language. Ultimately, Polish is thought to descend from the unattested Proto-Slavic language, Poland is the most linguistically homogeneous European country, nearly 97% of Polands citizens declare Polish as their first language. Elsewhere, Poles constitute large minorities in Lithuania, Belarus, Polish is the most widely used minority language in Lithuanias Vilnius County and is found elsewhere in southeastern Lithuania. There are significant numbers of Polish speakers among Polish emigrants and their descendants in many other countries, in the United States, Polish Americans number more than 11 million but most of them cannot speak Polish fluently. The largest concentrations of Polish speakers reported in the census were found in three states, Illinois, New York, and New Jersey. Enough people in these areas speak Polish that PNC Financial Services offer services available in Polish at all of their machines in addition to English and Spanish. According to the 2011 census there are now over 500,000 people in England, in Canada, there is a significant Polish Canadian population, There are 242,885 speakers of Polish according to the 2006 census, with a particular concentration in Toronto and Montreal. The geographical distribution of the Polish language was affected by the territorial changes of Poland immediately after World War II. Poles settled in the Recovered Territories in the west and north and this tendency toward a homogeneity also stems from the vertically integrated nature of the authoritarian Polish Peoples Republic. The inhabitants of different regions of Poland still speak standard Polish somewhat differently, first-language speakers of Polish have no trouble understanding each other, and non-native speakers may have difficulty distinguishing regional variations
18.
Association football
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Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball. It is played by 250 million players in over 200 countries and dependencies making it the worlds most popular sport, the game is played on a rectangular field with a goal at each end. The object of the game is to score by getting the ball into the opposing goal, players are not allowed to touch the ball with their hands or arms while it is in play, unless they are goalkeepers. Other players mainly use their feet to strike or pass the ball, the team that scores the most goals by the end of the match wins. If the score is level at the end of the game, the Laws of the Game were originally codified in England by The Football Association in 1863. Association football is governed internationally by the International Federation of Association Football, the first written reference to the inflated ball used in the game was in the mid-14th century, Þe heued fro þe body went, Als it were a foteballe. The Online Etymology Dictionary states that the word soccer was split off in 1863, according to Partha Mazumdar, the term soccer originated in England, first appearing in the 1880s as an Oxford -er abbreviation of the word association. Within the English-speaking world, association football is now usually called football in the United Kingdom and mainly soccer in Canada and the United States. People in Australia, Ireland, South Africa and New Zealand use either or both terms, although national associations in Australia and New Zealand now primarily use football for the formal name. According to FIFA, the Chinese competitive game cuju is the earliest form of football for which there is scientific evidence, cuju players could use any part of the body apart from hands and the intent was kicking a ball through an opening into a net. It was remarkably similar to football, though similarities to rugby occurred. During the Han Dynasty, cuju games were standardised and rules were established, phaininda and episkyros were Greek ball games. An image of an episkyros player depicted in low relief on a vase at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens appears on the UEFA European Championship Cup, athenaeus, writing in 228 AD, referenced the Roman ball game harpastum. Phaininda, episkyros and harpastum were played involving hands and violence and they all appear to have resembled rugby football, wrestling and volleyball more than what is recognizable as modern football. As with pre-codified mob football, the antecedent of all football codes. Non-competitive games included kemari in Japan, chuk-guk in Korea and woggabaliri in Australia, Association football in itself does not have a classical history. Notwithstanding any similarities to other games played around the world FIFA have recognised that no historical connection exists with any game played in antiquity outside Europe. The modern rules of football are based on the mid-19th century efforts to standardise the widely varying forms of football played in the public schools of England
19.
FIFA World Cup top goalscorers
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Over 2,300 goals have been scored at the 20 editions of the FIFA World Cup final tournaments, excluding penalties converted during shoot-outs. Since the first goal scored by French player Lucien Laurent at the 1930 FIFA World Cup, over 1,200 footballers have scored goals at the World Cup, the top goalscorer of the inaugural competition was Argentinas Guillermo Stábile with eight goals. Since then, only 22 players have scored goals at all the games played at the World Cup as Stábile did throughout the 1930 tournament. The first was Hungarys Sándor Kocsis with eleven goals scored in 1954, at the next tournament, Frances Just Fontaine improved on this record with 13 goals in only six games. Gerd Müller scored 10 goals for West Germany in 1970, and his record stood for more than three decades until Brazils Ronaldo scored 15 goals between 1998 and 2006. Germanys Miroslav Klose went on to score a record 16 goals across four consecutive tournaments between 2002 and 2014. Only two other players have scored more than 10 goals at the World Cup, Pelé with 12 between 1958 and 1970, and Jürgen Klinsmann with 11 between 1990 and 1998. These top 90 goalscorers represented 30 different nations, with 13 players scoring for Brazil, in total,60 footballers are from UEFA,26 from CONMEBOL, and only 4 players from elsewhere, Cameroon, Ghana, Australia, and the United States. Fontaine holds the record for the most goals scored at a single tournament, the players that came closest to this record were Kocsis in 1954, Müller in 1970 and Portugals Eusébio in 1966, with 11,10 and 9 goals, respectively. The lowest scoring tournaments top goalscorer was in 1962, when six players scored four goals each. A total of 29 different footballers have been credited with the most goals at a World Cup during the 20 editions, and no one has achieved this feat twice. Nine of them scored at least seven goals in a tournament and these 29 top goalscorers played for 19 different nations, the most for Brazil. Of these 29,19 came from Europe and 10 from South America, except for three in 2010, all the top goalscorers won the Golden Boot. Tournaments in parentheses, e. g. played in the tournament, but did not score a goal Tournaments in square brackets, e. g. com Statistics at RSSSF Planet World Cup
20.
FIFA World Cup awards
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At the end of each FIFA World Cup final tournament, several awards are attributed to the players and teams which have distinguished from the rest, in different aspects of the game. Two other awards were given between 1994 and 2006, the Most Entertaining Team award for the team that has entertained the public the most, during the World Cup final tournament, as determined by a poll of the general public. An All-Star Team comprising the best players of the tournament chosen by the study group. Those who finish as runners-up in the vote receive the Silver Ball and Bronze Ball awards as the second, FC Barcelona is the club with the most players that have won the Golden Ball award. The Golden Boot or Golden Shoe Award goes to the top goalscorer of the FIFA World Cup, while every World Cup had a ranking of the goalscorers, the first time an award was given was in 1982, under the name Golden Shoe. It was rechristened Golden Boot in 2010, FIFA sometimes lists the top goalscorers of previous Cups among the Golden Boot winners. If there is more than one player, the tie-breaker since 2006 goes to the player who has played the least amount of time. 1 FIFA initially credited Nejedlý with only four goals, which would make him joint top scorer with Angelo Schiavio of Italy, however, FIFA changed it to five goals in November 2006, making Nejedlý the outright top scorer. 2 FIFA initially credited Leônidas with eight goals,3 There was controversy regarding the number of goals Brazilian Ademir had scored in 1950, as a result of incomplete data concerning the Final Round game Brazil vs. Spain. The 5–0 goal had been credited to Jair, but is now credited to Ademir 4 Salenko is the player to win the award playing for a team that were eliminated in the group stages. His six goals are the international goals he ever scored. 5 Despite the assist tiebreaker, Salenko and Stoichkov remained tied with 6 goals and one assist each,6 Romário and Andersson surpassed the other two players with five goals by having three assists each. 7 Both runners-up had the number of assists, and each received the Silver Shoe. 8 During the tournament, after the group match against Costa Rica, Ronaldo logged a protest against the crediting of a goal as an own goal. 9 Eight players had scored three goals, Ronaldo, Crespo and Zinedine Zidane stood out for having one assist, and then the two recipients were determined by less playtime. 10 Müller, Villa, Sneijder and Diego Forlán tied with five goals, Müller won by virtue of having more assists than the rest. Villa won the Silver Boot due to playing fewer minutes than Sneijder,11 Neymar, Lionel Messi and Robin van Persie all had four goals in the tournament. Neymar received the Bronze Boot for playing fewer minutes than his competitors, the Golden Glove Award is awarded to the best goalkeeper of the tournament
21.
Ronaldo (Brazilian footballer)
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Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima, commonly known as Ronaldo, is a Brazilian retired professional footballer who played as a striker. Popularly dubbed The Phenomenon, he is considered to be one of the greatest football players of all time. A three-time FIFA World Player of the Year and two-time Ballon dOr recipient, Ronaldo, in his 1990s prime, was known for his dribbling at speed, feints and clinical finishing. He was named in the FIFA100, a list of the greatest living players compiled in 2004, and was inducted into the Brazilian Football Museum Hall of Fame and the Italian Football Hall of Fame. Ronaldo played for Brazil in 98 matches, scoring 62 goals, at age 17, Ronaldo was the youngest member of the Brazilian squad that won the 1994 FIFA World Cup. At the 1998 World Cup, he received the Golden Ball for player of the tournament in helping Brazil reach the final where he suffered a convulsive fit hours before the defeat to France. He won a second World Cup in 2002 where he starred in a front three with Ronaldinho and Rivaldo, Ronaldo scored twice in the final, and received the Golden Boot as tournaments top goalscorer. During the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Ronaldo scored his 15th World Cup goal, at age 23 he had scored over 200 goals for club and country. After almost three years of inactivity due to knee injuries and recuperation, Ronaldo joined Real Madrid in 2002. Having suffered further injuries, Ronaldo retired from football in 2011. Post-retirement, he has continued his work as a United Nations Development Programme Goodwill Ambassador and he served as an ambassador for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. In 1993, Ronaldo began his career playing for Cruzeiro. Aged 16, he made his debut on 25 May 1993 against Caldense in the Minas Gerais State Championship. Ronaldo came to public attention on 7 November 1993, scoring five goals in the game against Bahia. Ronaldo scored 44 goals in 47 games with Cruzeiro, leading them to their first Copa do Brasil in 1993, and the Minas Gerais State Championship in 1994. Before joining Cruzeiro, he was turned down by his favourite team Flamengo. Ronaldo chose to join PSV after the 1994 World Cup, for which he was selected despite being just 17 and it was Romário who advised Ronaldo to start his European career at PSV, Romário being a former striker of the team from 1988 to 1993. Ronaldo scored 30 league goals in his first season in the Netherlands and his second season was marred by a knee injury which kept him out of most of the campaign, but he still averaged nearly a goal a game in the league, scoring 12 goals in 13 appearances
22.
Bundesliga
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The Bundesliga, is a professional association football league in Germany and the football league with the highest average stadium attendance worldwide. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germanys primary football competition, the Bundesliga is contested by 18 teams and operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the 2. Seasons run from August to May, most games are played on Saturdays and Sundays, with a few games played on weekdays. All of the Bundesliga clubs qualify for the DFB-Pokal, the winner of the Bundesliga qualifies for the DFL-Supercup. A total of 54 clubs have competed in the Bundesliga since its founding, FC Bayern Munich has won the Bundesliga the most, winning the title 25 times. However, the Bundesliga has seen other champions with Borussia Dortmund, Hamburger SV, Werder Bremen, Borussia Mönchengladbach, the Bundesliga is broadcast on television in over 200 countries. The Bundesliga was founded in 1962 in Dortmund and the first season started in 1963, the structure and organisation of the Bundesliga along with Germanys other football leagues have undergone frequent changes right up to the present day. The Bundesliga was founded by the Deutscher Fußball-Bund, but is now operated by the Deutsche Fußball Liga, the Bundesliga is composed of two divisions, the 1. Bundesliga, and, below that, the 2, Bundesliga, which has been the second tier of German football since 1974. Below the level of the 3, Liga, leagues are generally subdivided on a regional basis. For example, the Regionalligen are currently made up of Nord, Nordost, Süd, below this are thirteen parallel divisions, most of which are called Oberligen which represent federal states or large urban and geographical areas. The levels below the Oberligen differ between the local areas, the league structure has changed frequently and typically reflects the degree of participation in the sport in various parts of the country. In the early 1990s, changes were driven by the reunification of Germany, every team in the two Bundesligen must have a licence to play in the league, or else they are relegated into the regional leagues. To obtain a licence, teams must be healthy and meet certain standards of conduct as organisations. As in other leagues, there are significant benefits to being in the top division. Bundesliga teams draw significantly greater levels of fan support, average attendance in the first league is 42,673 per game — more than twice the average of the 2. Greater exposure through television and higher attendance levels helps 1, Bundesliga teams attract the most lucrative sponsorships. Bundesliga teams develop substantial financial muscle through the combination of television and gate revenues, sponsorships and this allows them to attract and retain skilled players from domestic and international sources and to construct first-class stadium facilities
23.
Serie A
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It had been organized by Lega Calcio until 2010, but a new league, the Lega Serie A, was created for the 2010–11 season. Serie A is regarded as one of the best football leagues in the world, Serie A led the UEFA ranking from 1986 to 1988 and from 1990 to 1999. In its current format, the Italian Football Championship was revised from having regional and interregional rounds, the championship titles won prior to 1929 are officially recognised by FIGC with the same weighting as titles that were subsequently awarded. However, the 1945–46 season, when the league was played over two groups due to the ravages of WWII, is not statistically considered, even if its title is fully official. All the winning teams are recognised with the title of Campione dItalia, Juventus, Italys most successful club of the 20th century and the most successful Italian team, is tied for fourth in Europe and eighth in the world with the most official international titles. The club is also the one in the world to have won all possible official continental competitions. Milan is joint third club for international titles won in the world. Internazionale, following their achievements in the 2009–10 season, became the first Italian team to have achieved a treble, Juventus, Milan and Inter, along with Roma, Fiorentina, Lazio and Napoli, are known as the Seven Sisters of Italian football. For most of Serie As history, there were 16 or 18 clubs competing at the top level, since 2004–05, however, there have been 20 clubs altogether. One season was played with 21 teams for political reasons, thus, in Italian football a true round-robin format is used. In the first half of the season, called the andata, each team plays once against each league opponent, since the 1994–95 season, teams are awarded three points for a win, one point for a draw and no points for a loss. Since Italy is currently rated fourth in Europe in terms of club football ratings, teams finishing fourth and fifth qualify for the UEFA Europa League tournament. A third UEFA Europa League spot is reserved for the winner of the Coppa Italia, if both Coppa Italia finalists finish among the top five teams in Serie A, the sixth-ranked team in Serie A is awarded the UEFA Europa League spot. The three lowest-placed teams are relegated to Serie B, any play-off was held after the end of regular season. The last championship playoff occurred in the 1963-64 season when Bologna, below is a list of Serie A clubs who have competed in the competition when it has been a league format. There are 66 teams that have taken part in 85 Serie A championships in a round that was played from the 1929–30 season until the 2016–17 season. The teams in bold compete in Serie A currently, Internazionale is the only team that has played Serie A football in every season. Serie A, as it is structured today, began during the 1929–1930 season, from 1898 to 1922, the competition was organised into regional groups
24.
Silesia
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Silesia is a region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is about 40,000 km2, and its population about 8,000,000, Silesia is located along the Oder River. It consists of Lower Silesia and Upper Silesia, the region is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. Silesias largest city and historical capital is Wrocław, the biggest metropolitan area is the Upper Silesian metropolitan area, the centre of which is Katowice. Parts of the Czech city of Ostrava fall within the borders of Silesia, Silesias borders and national affiliation have changed over time, both when it was a hereditary possession of noble houses and after the rise of modern nation-states. The first known states to hold there were probably those of Greater Moravia at the end of the 9th century. In the 10th century, Silesia was incorporated into the early Polish state, in the 14th century, it became a constituent part of the Bohemian Crown Lands under the Holy Roman Empire, which passed to the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy in 1526. Most of Silesia was conquered by Prussia in 1742, later becoming part of the German Empire, the Weimar Republic, the varied history with changing aristocratic possessions resulted in an abundance of castles in Silesia, especially in the Jelenia Góra valley. The remaining former Austrian parts of Silesia were partitioned to Czechoslovakia, in 1945, after World War II, the bulk of Silesia was transferred to Polish jurisdiction by the Potsdam Agreement of the victorious Allied Powers and became part of Poland. The small Lusatian strip west of the Oder-Neisse line, which had belonged to Silesia since 1815 and its centres are Görlitz and Bautzen. Most inhabitants of Silesia today speak the languages of their respective countries. The population of Upper Silesia is native, while Lower Silesia was settled by a German-speaking population before 1945, an ongoing debate exists whether Silesian speech should be considered a dialect of Polish or a separate language. Also, a Lower Silesian German dialect is used, although today it is almost extinct and it is used by expellees within Germany, as well as Germans who were left behind. The names all relate to the name of a river and mountain in mid-southern Silesia, the mountain served as a cultic place. Ślęża is listed as one of the numerous Pre-Indo-European topographic names in the region, according to some Polish Slavists, the name Ślęża or Ślęż is directly related to the Old Slavic words ślęg or śląg, which means dampness, moisture, or humidity. They disagree with the hypothesis of an origin for the name Śląsk from the name of the Silings tribe, in the fourth century BC, Celts entered Silesia, settling around Mount Ślęża near modern Wrocław, Oława, and Strzelin. Germanic Lugii tribes were first recorded within Silesia in the 1st century, Slavic peoples arrived in the region around the 7th century, and by the early ninth century, their settlements had stabilized. Local Slavs started to erect boundary structures like the Silesian Przesieka, the eastern border of Silesian settlement was situated to the west of the Bytom, and east from Racibórz and Cieszyn
25.
Professionalism in association football
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Association football is the worlds most popular sport, and is worth US$600 billion worldwide. By the end of the 20th century it was played by over 250 million players in over 200 countries, Football has the highest global television audience in sport. The sport had amateur origins and evolved into the professional competition. Association football was first codified in 1863, with the formation of the Football Association in England, at this time the sport was played mainly by public schools, or teams with public school roots, and amateurism was the norm. This remained the case until the 1880s, when teams began to vie for supremacy. Blackburn Olympic, a team composed mainly of workers, won the 1883 FA Cup Final. They were the first working-class team to win the competition since its inception in 1870, though professionalism was not permitted, Olympic arranged jobs for their players, and supplemented their income with additional payments, a common occurrence among Lancashire clubs. The differences between the amateur idealists from southern England and the increasingly professionalised teams from northern industrial towns came to a head in 1884. After Preston North End won an FA Cup match against Upton Park and this sparked a series of events which threatened to split the FA. Preston withdrew from the competition, and fellow Lancashire clubs Burnley, eighteen months later the FA relented, and in July 1885 professionalism was formally legalised in England. Though English clubs employed professionals, the Scottish Football Association continued to forbid the practice, consequently, many Scottish players migrated southward. At first the FA put residential restrictions in place to prevent this, in the inaugural season of the Football League, champions Preston North End fielded ten Scottish professionals. The Scottish FA lifted its ban on professionalism in 1893, whereupon 560 players were registered as professionals and this table details the year in which professionalism was introduced, country by country. See also Professional sports#Association football The Rise of the Professional Footballer
26.
Odra Opole
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Odra Opole is a football club based in Opole, Poland, currently playing in the Polish Second League. The history of Odra Opole began on June 16,1945, when in the hall of former German city of Oppeln. Under first chairman, lawyer Leonard Olejnik, Odra organized first sports competition in the now-Polish city, in 1948, Odra merged with Lwowianka Opole and Chrobry Groszowice, and in 1948 -1958, the club was called Budowlani Opole. By 1950, Budowlani had several departments, including football, track and field, tennis, boxing, ice hockey, in 1951, managed by Mieczyslaw Bieniek, Budowlani won promotion to the second tier of Polish football system. In 1952, the team achieved promotion to the Ekstraklasa, after the playoffs with Wlokniarz Krakow, the team from Opole debuted in the Polish top league on March 15,1953, losing at home 1-2 to Gwardia Warszawa. After only one year, Budowlani was relegated back to the second division, in 1955, Budowlani, with its top scorer Engelbert Jarek, returned to the Ekstraklasa. In the same year, Opole’s favourites reached the semifinal of the Polish Cup, Budowlani, whose name was in 1958 changed back to Odra, remained in the Polish top class until 1958. After relegation, Odra quickly returned to Ekstraklasa, and in the early 1960s, in 1960 Odra, which at that time featured several players of the Polish national team was close to winning Polish championship. Managed by Teodor Wieczorek, the team lost in the round to Gwardia Warszawa. In 1962, Odra won third place in the Polish Cup, in 1963/64, Odra was again close to winning Polish championship. Managed by Artur Wozniak, it finished in the 3rd spot, in that year, Odra had 31 points in the Ekstraklasa, as many as the runner-up, Zaglebie Sosnowiec. In 1966, Odra was relegated, to return to the Ekstraklasa in 1967, in the early 1970s, Odra, managed by its former star Engelbert Jarek, had several top class players, including Josef Klose and Zbigniew Gut. Nevertheless, in June 1974 the team was relegated, in 1975, Engelbert Jarek was replaced by Antoni Piechniczek, former manager of BKS Stal Bielsko-Biala. After one year, Piechniczek won promotion back to the Ekstraklasa, Odra’s Wojciech Tyc was in 1975/76 top scorer of the second division, together with Janusz Kupcewicz of Arka Gdynia. There, it lost in the first round to East German side 1, in the autumn of 1978, Odra was a sensation of the Ekstraklasa. After winning several games, including 5-3 vs. Legia Warsaw in Warsaw, in the spring of 1979 however, Odra lost several important games, eventually finishing the championship in the 5th spot. After this season, Antoni Piechniczek resigned, to be replaced by Jozef Zwierzyna, in 1979/1980 Odra finished in the 9th spot, and in 1980/1981, it was relegated, not to return to the Ekstraklasa. Odra’s last so far game in the top Polish class took place on June 14,1981 vs Legia in Warsaw, after relegation, Odra remained in the second division, to be relegated to the third level, in June 1984
27.
Polish People's Republic
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The Polish Peoples Republic covers the history of Poland under Communist control between 1952 and 1990. The name was defined by the Constitution of 1952 which was based on the 1936 Soviet Constitution, between 1947 and 1952, the name of the Polish state was the Republic of Poland, in accordance with the temporary Constitution of 1947. The Soviet Union had much influence over internal and external affairs, and Red Army forces were stationed in Poland. In 1945, Soviet generals and advisors formed 80% of the cadre of the Polish Armed Forces. The Polish United Workers Party became the dominant political party, officially making the country a Communist state, at the Yalta Conference in February 1945, Stalin was able to present his western allies, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, with a fait accompli in Poland. His armed forces were in occupation of the country, and his agents, the USSR was in the process of incorporating the lands in eastern Poland which it had occupied between 1939 and 1941. In compensation, the USSR awarded Poland German territories in Pomerania, Silesia and these awards were confirmed at the Tripartite Conference of Berlin, otherwise known as the Potsdam Conference in August 1945 after the end of the war in Europe. Stalin was determined that Polands new government would become his tool towards making Poland a Soviet puppet state controlled by the communists. He had severed relations with the Polish government-in-exile in London in 1943, the communists held a majority of key posts in this new government, and with Soviet support they soon gained almost total control of the country, rigging all elections. This important victory would be their last, however, as the communists, tightening their grip on power, many of their opponents decided to leave the country, and others were put on staged trials and sentenced to many years of imprisonment or execution. In June 1946 the Three Times Yes referendum was held on a number of issues—abolition of the Senate of Poland, land reform, the communist-controlled Interior Ministry issued results showing that all three questions passed overwhelmingly. Years later, however, evidence was uncovered showing that the referendum had been tainted by massive fraud, Gomułka then took advantage of a split in the Polish Socialist Party. One faction, which included Prime Minister Edward Osóbka-Morawski, wanted to join forces with the Peasant Party, another faction, led by Józef Cyrankiewicz, argued that the Socialists should support the Communists in carrying through a socialist program, while opposing the imposition of one-party rule. Pre-war political hostilities continued to influence events, and Mikołajczyk would not agree to form a front with the Socialists. The Communists played on these divisions by dismissing Osóbka-Morawski and making Cyrankiewicz Prime Minister, between the referendum and the January 1947 general elections, the opposition was subjected to persecution. Only the candidates of the pro-government Democratic Bloc were allowed to campaign completely unmolested, meanwhile, several opposition candidates were prevented from campaigning at all. Mikołajczyks Polish Peoples Party in particular suffered persecution, it had opposed the abolition of the Senate as a test of strength against the government, although it supported the other two questions, the Communist-dominated government branded the PSL traitors. This massive oppression was overseen by Gomułka and the provisional president, the official results of the election showed the Democratic Bloc with 80.1 percent of the vote
28.
AJ Auxerre
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Association de la Jeunesse Auxerroise is a French football club based in the commune of Auxerre in Burgundy. The club was founded in 1905 and currently plays in Ligue 2, Auxerre plays its home matches at the Stade lAbbé-Deschamps on the banks of the Yonne River. The team is managed by former football player Jean-Luc Vannuchi and captained by centre-back Sébastien Puygrenier, Auxerre was founded in 1905 and made its debut in the first division of French football in the 1980–81 season and have remained a fixture in the league until 2011–12 season. The club has won the Ligue 1 title once, in the 1995–96 season, two years prior, Auxerre achieved its first major honour by winning the Coupe de France in 1994. The club has added three more Coupe de France titles, which ties the club for fifth-best among teams who have won the trophy. Auxerre have unearthed several talented players in its existence, the club has most notably served as a springboard for several prominent French football players such as Eric Cantona, Laurent Blanc, Philippe Mexès, Basile Boli, and Djibril Cissé, among others. All six players became French internationals with Blanc playing on the teams won the 1998 FIFA World Cup. From 1961 to 2005, the club was coached by Guy Roux. This included a period when Roux was in charge for 36 years between 1964 and 2000. The club Association de la Jeunesse Auxerroise was founded in 1905, the club success, becoming a force in the Catholic league F. G. S. P. F. In 1908, the club reached the F. G. S. P. F. French Championship final, losing 8–1 however, at the end of the First World War, the club was expelled from its ground. Father Deschamps acquired several pieces of land along the Yonne on the Vaux road, Auxerre made its first steps in Division 1 on 24 July 1980 against Bastia in Toulon. On 20 November 1980, Andrzej Szarmach signed for Auxerre having received consent from the Polish Football Association and he started two days later at home against Lyon and scored the first of his ninety-four goals in Division 1. In the next two seasons, AJA finished fifteenth and eighth respectively, during the 1983–84 season, AJA climbed for the first time onto the podium in finishing third. Patrice Garande finished top scorer with twenty-one goals and that summer, Auxerre recruited Michel NGom. An international prospect, he left Paris Saint-Germain, during pre-season, he scored five goals in ten games. On the last weekend before the start of the season, he visited his former teammates in Paris, tragically, he died following a traffic accident on 12 August 1984
29.
German minority in Poland
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The registered German minority in Poland at the 2011 national census consisted of 148,000 people, of whom 64,000 declared both German and Polish ethnicities and 45,000 solely German ethnicity. At a 2002 census there were 152,900 people declaring German ethnicity, in 2013, Polands German community was estimated to be around 350,000. The German language is used in areas in Opole Voivodeship. However, there are no localities in either the former Upper Silesia or Poland as a whole where German could be considered a language of everyday communication. In the school year of 2014/15 there were 387 elementary schools in Poland, with over 37,000 students, in which German was taught as a minority language, hence de facto as a subject. There were no minority schools with German as the language of instruction, most members of the German minority are Roman Catholic, while some are Lutheran Protestants. A number of German-language newspapers and magazines are published in Poland. A second region with a notable German minority is Masuria, with 4,311 living in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, corresponding to 2. 9% of all Germans in Poland, and 0. 3% of the local population. Towns with particularly high concentrations of German speakers in Opole Voivodeship include, Strzelce Opolskie, Dobrodzien, Prudnik, Głogówek, German migration into the area that is part of modern Poland began with the medieval Ostsiedlung. The historically Prussian regions of Lower Silesia, East Brandenburg, Pomerania, in other areas of modern-day Poland there were substantial German populations, most notably in the historical regions of Pomerelia, Upper Silesia, and Posen or Greater Poland. Lutheran Germans settled numerous Olęder villages along the Vistula River and its tributaries during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, in the 19th century, Germans were actively involved in developing the clothmaking industry in what is now central Poland. Over 3,000 villages and towns within Russian Poland are recorded as having German residents, many of these Germans remained east of the Curzon line after World War I, including a significant number in Volhynia. In the late 19th century, some Germans moved westward during the Ostflucht, after the creation of the Second Polish Republic, large numbers of ethnic Germans were forced to leave, especially in the Polish Corridor area. According to the 1931 census there were around 740,000 German speakers living in Poland and their minority rights were protected by the Little Treaty of Versailles. The right to appeal to the League of Nations however was renounced in 1934, after Nazi Germanys invasion of the Second Polish Republic in 1939, many members of the German minority joined the ethnic German paramilitary organisation Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz. When the German occupation of Poland began, the Selbstschutz took a part in Nazi crimes against ethnic Poles. Due to their interactions with the Polish majority, they were able to prepare lists of Polish intellectuals. The organisation actively participated and was responsible for the deaths of about 50,000 Poles, before the Nazis defeat, the Soviets annexed a massive portion of the eastern part of Poland as part of an agreement between the two powers
30.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
31.
Rhineland-Palatinate
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Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of 19,846 square kilometres and about four million inhabitants, Rhineland-Palatinate is located in western Germany and borders Belgium, Luxembourg and France, and the German states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse, Baden-Württemberg and Saarland. The state of Rhineland-Palatinate dates from 30 August 1946, as of 201044. 9% of the population of the state adhered to the Roman Catholic Church,30. 6% to the Evangelical Church in Germany. 22. 0% of the population is irreligious or adheres to other religions, muslims made up 2. 5% of the total. The league of ShUM-cities in the later Rhineland-Palatinate comprised the Jewish communities of Mainz, Speyer, the Takkanot Shum, or Enactments of ShUM were a set of decrees formulated and agreed upon over a period of decades by their Jewish community leaders. Rhineland-Palatinate leads all German states with a rate of approximately 50%. Important sectors are the industry, chemical industry, pharmaceutical industry. Distinctive regional industries includes gemstone industry, ceramic and glass industry, small and medium enterprises are considered the backbone of the economy in Rhineland-Palatinate. The principal employer is the chemical and plastics processing industry which is represented by BASF in Ludwigshafen, boehringer, Joh. A. Benckiser, SGE Deutsche Holding, Schott Glassworks concludes the top 5 companies in the state. Rhineland-Palatinate is Germanys leading producer of wine in terms of grape cultivation, of thirteen wine regions producing quality wine in Germany, six are located in Rhineland-Palatinate, with 65% to 70% of the production of wine grapes in Germany having their origin within the state. 13,000 wine producers generate 80% to 90% of the German wine export, traditional grape varieties and a wide range of varieties developed during the last 125 years are characteristic for the region. Classical white varieties are cultivated at 63,683 hectares and these comprise the famous Rieslings 14,446 hectares, Müller-Thurgau, Silvaner and Kerner. The share of red varieties grew constantly during the last decades, dornfelder, a new cultivar, is the leading red grape cultivated on 7,626 hectares, which is more than a third. Blauer Portugieser and Spätburgunder show also appreciable cultivated shares, the state supports the wine industry by providing a comprehensive consultancy and education program in the service supply centers of the land. The Geilweilerhof Institute for Grape Breeding is fully financed by the state, many well known new breeds, such as Morio-Muskat, Bacchus, Optima and Regent have been created in these institutes. The worldwide leader in sparkling wine production, producing 245 million bottles in 2006, is the renowned Schloss Wachenheim Group and this company is headquartered in Trier, with operations in several locations in Rhineland-Palatinate
32.
German language
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German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and it is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg. Major languages which are most similar to German include other members of the West Germanic language branch, such as Afrikaans, Dutch, English, Luxembourgish and it is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English. One of the languages of the world, German is the first language of about 95 million people worldwide. The German speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of publication of new books. German derives most of its vocabulary from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, a portion of German words are derived from Latin and Greek, and fewer are borrowed from French and English. With slightly different standardized variants, German is a pluricentric language, like English, German is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects, with many unique varieties existing in Europe and also other parts of the world. The history of the German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, when Martin Luther translated the Bible, he based his translation primarily on the standard bureaucratic language used in Saxony, also known as Meißner Deutsch. Copies of Luthers Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region that translated words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics initially rejected Luthers translation, and tried to create their own Catholic standard of the German language – the difference in relation to Protestant German was minimal. It was not until the middle of the 18th century that a widely accepted standard was created, until about 1800, standard German was mainly a written language, in urban northern Germany, the local Low German dialects were spoken. Standard German, which was different, was often learned as a foreign language with uncertain pronunciation. Northern German pronunciation was considered the standard in prescriptive pronunciation guides though, however, German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire and its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Some cities, such as Prague and Budapest, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain, others, such as Pozsony, were originally settled during the Habsburg period, and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest and Bratislava as well as cities like Zagreb, the most comprehensive guide to the vocabulary of the German language is found within the Deutsches Wörterbuch. This dictionary was created by the Brothers Grimm and is composed of 16 parts which were issued between 1852 and 1860, in 1872, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a standardization of the German language in its written form
33.
Der Spiegel
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Der Spiegel is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. It is one of Europes largest publications of its kind, with a circulation of 840,000. Spiegel Online, the sibling of Der Spiegel, was launched in 1994 with an independent editorial staff. Typically, the magazine has a content to advertising ratio of 2,1, Der Spiegel is known in German-speaking countries mostly for its investigative journalism. It has played a key role in uncovering many political scandals such as the Spiegel scandal in 1962, according to The Economist, Der Spiegel is one of continental Europes most influential magazines. The first edition of Der Spiegel was published in Hanover on Saturday,4 January 1947 and its release was initiated and sponsored by the British occupational administration and preceded by a magazine titled Diese Woche, which had first been published in November 1946. After disagreements with the British, the magazine was handed over to Rudolf Augstein as chief editor, from the first edition in January 1947, Augstein held the position of editor-in-chief, which he retained until his death on 7 November 2002. After 1950, the magazine was owned by Rudolf Augstein and John Jahr, in 1969, Augstein bought out Gruner + Jahr for DM42 million and became the sole owner of Der Spiegel. In 1971, Gruner + Jahr bought back a 25% share in the magazine, in 1974, Augstein restructured the company to make the employees shareholders. All employees with more than three years seniority were offered the opportunity to become an associate and participate in the management of the company, since 1952, Der Spiegel has been headquartered in its own building in the old town part of Hamburg. From 15,000 copies in 1947, it grew to 65,000 in 1948 and 437,000 in 1961 and it was nearly 500,000 copies in 1962. By the 1970s, it had reached a plateau at about 900,000 copies, when the German re-unification in 1990 made it available to a new readership in former East Germany, the circulation exceeded one million. Since 1988, it has produced the TV programme Spiegel TV, during the second quarter of 1992 the circulation of Der Spiegel was 1.1 million copies. In 1994, Spiegel Online was launched and it has separate and independent editorial staff from Der Spiegel. In 1999 the circulation of Der Spiegel was 1,061,000 copies, Der Spiegel had an average circulation of 1,076,000 copies in 2003. In 2007 the magazine started a new regional supplement in Switzerland and it was the first regional supplement of the magazine which covers 50-page review of Switzerland. In 2010 Der Spiegel was employing the equivalent of 80 full-time fact checkers, the same year it was the third best-selling general interest magazine in Europe with a circulation of 1,016,373 copies. When Stefan Aust took over in 1994, the magazines readers realised that his personality was different from his predecessor, in 2005, a documentary by Stephan Lamby quoted him as follows, We stand at a very big cannon
34.
Polish nationality law
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Polish nationality law is based primarily on the principle of jus sanguinis. Children born to at least one Polish parent acquire Polish citizenship irrespective of place of birth, entering into a marriage with a Polish citizen does not constitute a sufficient basis for obtaining Polish citizenship. In order to obtain citizenship, a foreigner has to meet additional specific conditions concerning their legal. However, in order to obtain a permanent residence permit in Poland and it is possible to obtain a permit for permanent or temporary residence in Poland, provided that you intend to reside in Poland and not in another country. You will not be able to obtain a temporary or permanent residence permit in Poland if you intend to live in a different country, Polish citizenship may also be obtained in the course of the procedure of granting Polish citizenship by the President of the Republic of Poland. The decision of the President is not limited by any conditions that the foreigner should meet in order to be granted Polish citizenship and this means that the President may grant Polish citizenship to any foreigner, regardless of such conditions as the duration of his stay in Poland. It is worth noting that the procedure for granting Polish citizenship by the President may take quite long, individuals applying for citizenship are obliged to substantiate their application and to provide important reasons why they should be granted Polish citizenship. A child born to a Polish parent is a Polish citizen at birth and this applies whether the child is born in Poland or elsewhere. Children born or found in Poland acquire Polish citizenship when both parents are unknown, or when their citizenship cannot be established, or if determined to be stateless, Polish citizenship is bestowed upon stateless children over sixteen years of age only with their consent. The current law is the Polish Citizenship Act of 2 April 2009, which was published on 14 February 2012, according to this act, a foreigner may acquire Polish citizenship in the following ways, By granting. This category allows the President of Poland to grant Polish citizenship to any foreigner who asks for it. Lived in Poland, legally, for the last 10 years, and currently have a permanent resident status, and have a stable and regular source of income, and own or rent an apartment or house. Lived in Poland for the last 2 years as a permanent resident, lived in Poland for the last 2 years as a permanent resident, and are stateless. Lived in Poland for the last 2 years as a refugee, lived in Poland for the last 2 years as a repatriate. Applies to people who lost Polish citizenship before 1 January 1999, Citizenship can generally be claimed only by descendants of Polish citizens. However, because the newly independent Poland comprised lands from Germany, Russia, and Austria-Hungary, the Polish Citizenship Act of 1920 referred back to the residency laws of these former states, and also international treaties. Polish Citizenship Act of 1920, Article 2 Those without a right to Polish citizenship were considered to have only Polish origins but not citizenship. Polish Citizenship Act of 1920, Article 2a Thus, not all ethnic Poles could claim Polish citizenship if they had left Poland before the country became an independent state in 1918, also, there can be no break in Polish citizenship between the emigrant ancestor and the descendant
35.
German passport
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German passports are issued to nationals of Germany for the purpose of international travel. Besides serving as proof of identity and presumption of German nationality, German passports are valid for ten years or six years and share the standardised layout and burgundy red design with other EU passports, albeit with a hard cover that is unique to Germany. Every German citizen is also a citizen of the European Union, the passport, along with the national identity card allows for free rights of movement and residence in any of the states of the European Union and European Economic Area. The word Reisepass is inscribed below the coat of arms, with Europäische Union, on February 23,2017, Germany unveiled a new passport design to be put in use from March 1,2017. German passports are normally 32 pages long, a 48-page version for frequent travellers can be issued on request, the country code is not DEU as is the standard country code for Germany, but D. This is the only country/citizen code which does not consist of 3 letters, the following page lists, Residence Height Colour of eyes Religious name or pseudonym The data page/information page is printed in German, English, and French. Completed application FORM Two identical, biometrically compatible, recent passport photos and your birth certificate with information about the exact place of birth, and one copy thereof. If married, divorced, or widowed, marriage certificate, divorce decree, or death certificate of your spouse and your current German passport, and one copy thereof. In case your last name in birth certificate and in your passport is not the same. It might be necessary to make a name declaration, confirmation of deregistration from the German place of residence if it is entered in the current passport as the place of residence, and one copy thereof. Valid residency permit, and one copy thereof and your drivers license or a utility bill in your name as proof of legal address, and one copy thereof. In case it is the first time you apply as an adult you will need your Parents German Passports or a certificate of Nationality Staatsangehörigkeitsausweis. Since 1 November 2005, German passports have had a contactless smartcard chip and 13.56 MHz loop antenna embedded into the front cover page, in accordance with ICAO standards. The chip and antenna are not easily recognisable, but their presence is indicated using the ICAO biometric passport symbol at the bottom of the front cover. It carries all the printed in the passport, including a JPEG file of the photo. On 1 November 2007, several changes were made to the passport, Applicants have to provide, in addition to the passport data. This improves the cryptographic key strength of the Basic Access Control mechanism of the RFID chip by 10 bits, the validity period of passports issued to holders under the age of 24 increases from five to six years, older applicants receive a passport valid for ten years. g. Müller becomes MUELLER, Groß becomes GROSS, and Gößmann becomes GOESSMANN, non-German names, In some names of naturalised citizens, some special letters that are not available may always be replaced by simple letters, also in the non-machine-readable zone
36.
Roman Catholic
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The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church or the Universal Church, is the largest Christian church, with more than 1.28 billion members worldwide. As one of the oldest religious institutions in the world, it has played a prominent role in the history, headed by the Bishop of Rome, known as the Pope, the churchs doctrines are summarised in the Nicene Creed and the Apostles Creed. Its central administration is located in Vatican City, enclaved within Rome, the Catholic Church is notable within Western Christianity for its sacred tradition and seven sacraments. It teaches that it is the one church founded by Jesus Christ, that its bishops are the successors of Christs apostles. The Catholic Church maintains that the doctrine on faith and morals that it declares as definitive is infallible. The Latin Church, the Eastern Catholic Churches, as well as such as mendicant orders and enclosed monastic orders. Among the sacraments, the one is the Eucharist, celebrated liturgically in the Mass. The church teaches that through consecration by a priest the sacrificial bread and wine become the body, the Catholic Church practises closed communion, with only baptised members in a state of grace ordinarily permitted to receive the Eucharist. The Virgin Mary is venerated in the Catholic Church as Queen of Heaven and is honoured in numerous Marian devotions. The Catholic Church has influenced Western philosophy, science, art and culture, Catholic spiritual teaching includes spreading the Gospel while Catholic social teaching emphasises support for the sick, the poor and the afflicted through the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. The Catholic Church is the largest non-government provider of education and medical services in the world, from the late 20th century, the Catholic Church has been criticised for its doctrines on sexuality, its refusal to ordain women and its handling of sexual abuse cases. Catholic was first used to describe the church in the early 2nd century, the first known use of the phrase the catholic church occurred in the letter from Saint Ignatius of Antioch to the Smyrnaeans, written about 110 AD. In the Catechetical Discourses of Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, the name Catholic Church was used to distinguish it from other groups that call themselves the church. The use of the adjective Roman to describe the Church as governed especially by the Bishop of Rome became more widespread after the Fall of the Western Roman Empire and into the Early Middle Ages. Catholic Church is the name used in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church follows an episcopal polity, led by bishops who have received the sacrament of Holy Orders who are given formal jurisdictions of governance within the church. Ultimately leading the entire Catholic Church is the Bishop of Rome, commonly called the pope, in parallel to the diocesan structure are a variety of religious institutes that function autonomously, often subject only to the authority of the pope, though sometimes subject to the local bishop. Most religious institutes only have male or female members but some have both, additionally, lay members aid many liturgical functions during worship services
37.
Euro
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Outside of Europe, a number of overseas territories of EU members also use the euro as their currency. Additionally,210 million people worldwide as of 2013 use currencies pegged to the euro, the euro is the second largest reserve currency as well as the second most traded currency in the world after the United States dollar. The name euro was adopted on 16 December 1995 in Madrid. The euro was introduced to world markets as an accounting currency on 1 January 1999. While the euro dropped subsequently to US$0.8252 within two years, it has traded above the U. S. dollar since the end of 2002, peaking at US$1.6038 on 18 July 2008. In July 2012, the euro fell below US$1.21 for the first time in two years, following concerns raised over Greek debt and Spains troubled banking sector, as of 26 March 2017, the euro–dollar exchange rate stands at ~ US$1.07. The euro is managed and administered by the Frankfurt-based European Central Bank, as an independent central bank, the ECB has sole authority to set monetary policy. The Eurosystem participates in the printing, minting and distribution of notes and coins in all states. The 1992 Maastricht Treaty obliges most EU member states to adopt the euro upon meeting certain monetary and budgetary convergence criteria, all nations that have joined the EU since 1993 have pledged to adopt the euro in due course. Since 5 January 2002, the central banks and the ECB have issued euro banknotes on a joint basis. Euro banknotes do not show which central bank issued them, Eurosystem NCBs are required to accept euro banknotes put into circulation by other Eurosystem members and these banknotes are not repatriated. The ECB issues 8% of the value of banknotes issued by the Eurosystem. In practice, the ECBs banknotes are put into circulation by the NCBs and these liabilities carry interest at the main refinancing rate of the ECB. The euro is divided into 100 cents, in Community legislative acts the plural forms of euro and cent are spelled without the s, notwithstanding normal English usage. Otherwise, normal English plurals are used, with many local variations such as centime in France. All circulating coins have a side showing the denomination or value. Due to the plurality in the European Union, the Latin alphabet version of euro is used. For the denominations except the 1-, 2- and 5-cent coins, beginning in 2007 or 2008 the old map is being replaced by a map of Europe also showing countries outside the Union like Norway
38.
Nelson Valdez
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Valdez started his career with Atlético Tembetary, progressing through their youth system to the first-team squad where he made his debut at the age of 16 in Paraguayan División Intermedia in 2000. He finished his career with the club having scored 11 goals in 22 league appearances, in 2001, he was scouted to Germanys Werder Bremen II, where he scored 15 goals in 30 Regionalliga Nord appearances in his second season before joining the clubs first-team. In 2003, Valdez was selected for the Paraguay under-20 national team where he scored one goal in four appearances at the 2003 FIFA World Youth Championship. In his second season with Werder Bremen, he claimed the 2003–04 Bundesliga and 2003–04 DFB-Pokal, Valdez debuted in the 2004–05 UEFA Champions League on 14 September 2004 and scored his first two Champions League goals in a 2–0 victory against Valencia in December. Valdez left Werder Bremen in August 2006 to join fellow Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund for a fee of €4.7 million on a four-year contract, within that four years, he scored 16 goals in 113 Bundesliga appearances and helped Dortmund qualify for the 2010–11 UEFA Europa League. He became the most expensive signing in the history and scored a double on his debut in a 2–0 win at the Camp Nou against Barcelona on 11 September. Valdez was later loaned out to Valencia and went on to stints with Al Jazira. In July 2014, Valdez returned to the Bundesliga and signed with Eintracht Frankfurt, Valdez has represented Paraguay at the 2006 and 2010 FIFA World Cup tournaments, he also participated at the 2004,2011 and 2015 Copa América tournaments, in 2011 Paraguay finished runners-up. Growing up, Valdez dreamed of playing for the Albirroja, Valdez and his family lived in poverty in the deprived district of San Joaquín, one of the poorest parts of Paraguay. Valdez confessed that he had an excellent childhood and had the joy of being from a loving family. Not owning a football, his skills were developed by playing with an orange or a pair of socks as his family and he first began to play club football when he joined local club 1º de Mayo of the San Joaquín district. Before leaving home, Valdez was to convince his mother to let him play football and his father took his side and Valdez eventually managed to go to Asunción to pursue his dream. I played football during the day and in the evening was drunk, later, Valdez father Antonio spoke with him and looked him in the eyes and then he understood perfectly what he had to do. The second division club were not able to pay him a large enough to earn a living. He never told his parents, who were poor land workers, Valdez stated, For two years I lived under the grandstands, we were 12 or 13 people and some of them only endured two or three weeks. While living 250 kilometres away from his family, Valdez had no home while playing for Tembetary and he worked night shifts in a sawmill to pay for food and drink. He was a 16-year-old exposed to danger and the Paraguayan climate, boiling hot summers and freezing cold winters, but if you have nothing, what can they steal. He bought Valdez a ticket to Germany and got on the phone to Werder Bremen, in December 2001, Valdez flew over to Germany for a trial
39.
FC Schalke 04
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The 04 in the clubs name derives from its formation in 1904. Schalke play in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German football league system, as of December 2015, the club has 140,000 members, making it the second-largest sports club in Germany and the sixth-largest sports club in the world in terms of membership. Other activities offered by the club include athletics, basketball, handball, table tennis, winter sports, founded in 1904, Schalke has won seven German championships, five DFB-Pokals, one DFL-Supercup and one UEFA Cup. Since 2001, Schalkes stadium is the Veltins-Arena, Schalke was ranked as the seventh-best football team in Europe by UEFAs 2015 UEFA club rankings. In terms of operating income, Schalke possesses the seventh-highest operating income of any club at $64.4 million or £38.2 million. Schalke also generates the 14th-highest revenue of any club, at $265.6 million or £157.8 million. In May 2014, Schalke 04 were ranked by Forbes magazine as the 14th-most valuable football club, at £355 million or $599 million, the club was founded on 4 May 1904 as Westfalia Schalke by a group of high school students and first wore the colours red and yellow. The team was unable to gain admittance to the Westdeutscher Spielverband, in 1912, after years of failed attempts to join the official league, they merged with the gymnastic club Schalker Turnverein 1877 in order to facilitate their entry. This arrangement held up until 1915 when SV Westfalia Schalke was re-established as an independent club, the separation proved short-lived and the two came together again in 1919 as Turn- und Sportverein Schalke 1877. The new club won its first honours in 1923 as champions of the Schalke Kreisliga, in 1924, the football team parted ways with the gymnasts again, this time taking the club chairman along with them. They took the name FC Schalke 04 and adopted the now familiar blue, the following year, the club became the dominant local side, based on a style of play that used short, sharp, man-to-man passing to move the ball. This system would become famous as the Schalker Kreisel. In 1927, it carried them into the top-flight Gauliga Ruhr, onto the league championship, the popular club built a new stadium, the Glückauf-Kampfbahn, in 1928, and acknowledged the citys support by renaming themselves FC Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04. However, the ban had little impact on the popularity, in their first game after the ban against Fortuna Düsseldorf, in June 1931. The clubs fortunes begun to rise from 1931 and they made a appearance in the 1932 German championship. The year after, the club went all the way to the final and this league saw Schalkes most successful decade in their history, from 1933 to 1942, the club would appear in 14 of 18 national finals and win their league in every one of its eleven seasons. Schalkes first national title came in 1934 with a 2–1 victory over favourites 1, the next year, they successfully defended their title against VfB Stuttgart with a 6–4 win. The club missed the 1936 final, but would make appearances in the match in each of the next six years
40.
VfL Wolfsburg
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Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg e. V. commonly known as VfL Wolfsburg or Wolfsburg, is a German sports club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. The club grew out of a club for Volkswagen workers in the city of Wolfsburg. It is best known for its department, but other departments include badminton, handball. The mens professional football play in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German football league system. Wolfsburg have won the Bundesliga once in their history, in the 2008–09 season, the DFB-Pokal in 2015, professional football is run by the spin-off organization VfL Wolfsburg-Fußball GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group. Since 2002, Wolfsburgs stadium is the Volkswagen Arena, the city of Wolfsburg was founded in 1938 as Stadt des KdF-Wagen to house autoworkers building the car that would later become famous as the Volkswagen Beetle. The first football club affiliated with the autoworks was known as BSG Volkswagenwerk Stadt des KdF-Wagen and this team played in the first division Gauliga Osthannover in the 1943–44 and 1944–45 seasons. On 12 September 1945, in the aftermath of World War II, on 15 December 1945, the club went through a crisis that almost ended its existence when all but one of its players left to join 1. The only player remaining, Josef Meyer, worked with Willi Hilbert to rebuild the side by signing new players, the new group adopted the moniker VfL Wolfsburg, VfL standing for Verein für Leibesübungen. This can be translated as club for gymnastics or club for exercises, within a year they captured the local Gifhorn title. The club made slow but steady progress in the following seasons, Wolfsburg, however, struggled in the top flight, narrowly missing relegation each season until finally being sent down in 1959. Wolfsburg remained a second division fixture over the dozen years with their best performance being a second-place finish in 1970. That finish earned the entry to the promotion round playoffs for the Bundesliga. From the mid-1970s through to the early 1990s, Die Wölfe played as a third side in the Amateur Oberliga Nord. Consecutive first-place finishes in 1991 and 1992, followed by success in the promotion playoffs, Wolfsburg continued to enjoy some success through the 1990s. Early predictions were that the club would immediately be sent back down, but instead, losing 6–1 away to MSV Duisburg in the final fixture, the Wolves finished in sixth place with 55 points and qualified for next seasons UEFA Cup. They also qualified for the Intertoto Cup in 2000,2001,2003,2004 and 2005 and this was followed by a couple of seasons of little success for the club, just narrowly avoiding relegation with two 15th-place finishes in the 2005–06 and 2006–07 seasons. This also enabled the Wolves to qualify for the UEFA Cup for only the time in their history
41.
Luca Toni
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Luca Toni, Ufficiale OMRI is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a striker. Something of a nomad, at club level, Toni played for twelve different Italian teams throughout his career. In 2012, he played for Al-Nasr Dubai SC, in the UAE Arabian Gulf League and he retired in 2016, after three seasons with Verona, the last as team captain. At international level, he represented the Italian national team on 47 occasions, a prolific goalscorer, Toni scored over 300 goals throughout his career, and is one of the top-five highest scoring Italians in all competitions. Toni also finished as top scorer in the 2007–08 Bundesliga, with 24 goals, Toni started his professional career at Modena. This was followed by a number of seasons spent around Serie B and Serie C1 with teams such as Empoli, Fiorenzuola, after a Serie B season with Treviso in 1999, he moved to Vicenza, playing in Serie A for the first time. He then moved to Brescia, playing for two seasons under manager Carlo Mazzone, alongside Roberto Baggio and Pep Guardiola. In the following season, Toni confirmed his prolificity by scoring 20 goals in Palermos first Serie A campaign, Tonis move to Fiorentina was marked by controversy as the fans dubbed him a traitor for his departure. La Viola paid €10 million to sign him, Toni was awarded the European Golden Shoe for this feat, the first Italian player to win this award. His goal scoring ability brought Fiorentina to heights never seen since the late 1990s and they clinched fourth spot and qualified for the Champions League. This league position, however, was revoked in the courts during the Calciopoli scandal, Italian courts recognized Fiorentina as culpable of shady dealings and convicted them to start the 2006–07 season with a 19-point deduction. The following season was plagued by injury, limiting Tonis goals to a less considerable and this was Tonis final season at the Florence club, as they agreed to sell him to Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich. Before he left, Toni promised Della Valle not to sign for any big Italian clubs, on 30 May 2007, Bayern Munich chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge confirmed that Toni had signed a four-year contract with the club after agreeing to a deal worth €11.58 million with Fiorentina. On 7 June, Toni was presented at a Bayern press conference along with new signing Franck Ribéry. Toni was given the number 9 shirt, Toni scored four goals in a 19 December 6–0 home win against Aris of Greece to help Bayern win their UEFA Cup group. On 17 February 2008, he scored his first Bundesliga hat-trick against Hannover 96, Bayern won the away fixture 3–0. Bayern eventually lost to Zenit Saint Petersburg in the semi-final, at the 2007–08 UEFA Cup, he shared the first place with Pavel Pogrebnyak from Zenit at the top scorers list with 10 goals. He scored two goals in the German Cup final against Borussia Dortmund in a 2–1 win, his goal was the winner in extra time to give Bayern Munich another cup victory
42.
Hertha BSC
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Hertha, Berliner Sport-Club e. V. commonly known as Hertha BSC, Hertha Berlin or simply Hertha, is a German association football club based in the Charlottenburg locality of Berlin. Hertha BSC play in the Bundesliga, the division of German football. Bundesliga table at the end of the 2012–13 season, Hertha BSC was founded in 1892, and was a founding member of the German Football Association in Leipzig in 1900. The team won the German championship in 1930 and 1931, since 1963, Herthas stadium has been the Olympiastadion. The club is known as Die Alte Dame in German, which translates to The Old Lady, in 2002, the sports activities of the professional, amateur, and under-19 teams were separated into Hertha BSC GmbH & Co. The name Hertha is a variation on Nerthus referring to fertility goddess from Germanic mythology, Hertha performed consistently well on the field, including a win in the first Berlin championship final in 1905. In May 1910, Hertha won a match against Southend United. However, their success was not matched financially and in 1920 the staunchly working-class Hertha merged with the well-heeled club Berliner Sport-Club to form Hertha Berliner Sport-Club. The new team continued to enjoy success in the Oberliga Berlin-Brandenburg. Notwithstanding, Hertha emerged as the Germanys second most successful team during the inter-war years, German football was re-organized under the Third Reich in 1933 into 16 top-flight divisions, which saw Hertha playing in the Gauliga Berlin-Brandenburg. The club continued to enjoy success within their division, regularly finishing in the half of the table. It faded from prominence, however, unable to advance out of the rounds of the national championship rounds. Politically, the club was overhauled under Hitler, with Hans Pfeifer, after World War II, occupying Allied authorities banned most organizations in Germany, including sports and football clubs. Hertha was re-formed late in 1945 as SG Gesundbrunnen and resumed play in the Oberliga Berlin – Gruppe C, by the end of 1949, it had re-claimed their identity as Hertha BSC and earned a return to the top-flight. Tensions between the western Allies and the Soviets occupying various sectors of the city, and the developing Cold War, led to chaotic conditions for football in the capital. Hertha was banned from playing against East German teams in the 1949–50 season after taking on several players, a number of sides from the eastern half of the city were forced from the Oberliga Berlin to the newly established DDR-Liga beginning with the 1950–51 season. Through the 1950s, a rivalry developed with Tennis Borussia Berlin. A proposal for a merger between the two clubs in 1958 was resoundingly rejected, with three of the 266 members voting in favour
43.
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge
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Karl-Heinz Kalle Rummenigge is a German former football winger. He had his greatest career success with German club Bayern Munich, where he won the Intercontinental Cup, the European Cup, as well as two league titles and two domestic cups. A member of the West Germany national team, Rummenigge won the 1980 European Championship and was part of the squad that finished runner-up in the 1982 FIFA World Cup and he was also honoured twice as European Footballer of the Year. He is currently the executive officer of the FC Bayern München AG. Rummenigge was born in Lippstadt, North Rhine-Westphalia and he joined Bayern Munich in 1974, coming from the Westphalian amateur side Borussia Lippstadt, for a transfer fee of ca. He immediately showed great strength as a dribbler and his striking qualities were initially insignificant, but would find great improvement in later years, particularly after the arrival of coach Pal Csernai in 1979. In 1979–80, he scored 26 goals and became for the first time the Bundesligas top striker, with Bayern he won the European Cup in 1975 and 1976. In the same year he became part of the team that prevailed in the Intercontinental Cup finals against Cruzeiro EC from Belo Horizonte. In the era of coach Csernai he found in midfielder Paul Breitner a congenial partner, the club, then often dubbed as FC Breitnigge, won in this period the Bundesliga title in 1980 and 1981, and the DFB-Pokal in 1982 and 1984. A renewed triumph in the European Cup was denied, when the club lost the 1982 final narrowly against Aston Villa, in the season before Rummenigge was top-scorer in this competition with 6 goals. His substantial contribution to the successes of the club and the German national football team found also expression in personal honours, in 1980, he was named German Footballer of the Year and in 80–81 the European Footballer of the Year. In 1984, aged 29, he was sold for a fee of €5. 7m to Inter Milan. Despite a notable beginning, in which he helped the team to compete until the end for the 1984–85 Scudetto, at the end of his contract in 1987, Rummenigge moved on to Swiss first division club Servette FC in Geneva, where he saw his career out. In his last season, 1988–89, he had his last success, with the West German national team he took part in the 1978 World Cup in Argentina,1982 World Cup in Spain and the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. In 1978, West Germany exited in the group stage of the tournament. In 1982 and 1986, the team was runner-up behind Italy, Rummenigge also took part in two European Championship tournaments. In the 1980 competition in Italy, West Germany defeated Belgium in the final by 2–1, the 1984 tournament in France is engraved as one of the most unsuccessful undertakings of the German national team. West Germany was already ousted in the group stage, altogether, between 1976 and 1986, Rummenigge amassed 95 caps and scored 45 goals for West Germany, including one in the 1986 World Cup final match
44.
DFB-Pokal
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The DFB-Pokal or German Cup is a German knockout football cup competition held annually. Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundesliga and it is considered the second-most important club title in German football after the Bundesliga championship. The DFB-Pokal is run by the German Football Association, and runs from August until June, the winner qualifies for the DFL-Supercup and the UEFA Europa League unless the winner already qualifies for the UEFA Champions League in the Bundesliga. The competition was founded in 1935, then called the Tschammer-Pokal, in 1937, Schalke 04 were the first team to win the double. The Tschammer-Pokal was suspended in 1944 due to World War II, in 1952–53, the cup was reinstated as the DFB-Pokal, named after the DFB, and was won by Rot-Weiss Essen. Bayern Munich have won the most titles with 18 wins, also being the incumbent title holders, fortuna Düsseldorf hold the record for most consecutive tournament game wins between 1978 and 1981, winning the cup in 1979 and 1980. The competition format has varied considerably since the inception of the Tschammer-Pokal in 1935, the DFB-Pokal begins with a round of 64 teams. The 36 teams of the Bundesliga and 2, Bundesliga, along with the top four finishers of the 3. Liga are automatically qualified for the tournament, of the remaining slots 21 are given to the cup winners of the regional football associations, the Verbandspokale. The three remaining slots are given to the three regional associations with the most mens teams and they may assign the slot as they see fit but usually give it to the runner-up in the association cup. Reserve teams like Borussia Dortmund II are not permitted to enter, the pairings for the DFB Cup are not entirely random as the teams are split into two pots of 32 teams each. One pot contains all the amateur teams including teams from the 3, liga and the teams just being promoted to the 2. The other pot contains the teams from the Bundesliga and the teams of the 2, Bundesliga who has not just been promoted. Therefore, in the first round of the cup each professional team plays an amateur team, since 1982, the amateur generally plays at home when facing a professional team. For the second round, the teams are divided into two pots according to the same principles. This time, the dont have to be of equal size, though. Amateur teams get paired with professional teams until one pot is empty, the remaining teams are then drawn from the nonempty pot with the team first drawn playing at home. For the remaining other than the final the teams are drawn from one pot
listen), Polish: Mirosław Józef Klose; born 9 June 1978)[4] is a German former professional footballer who last played as a striker for Italian club Lazio and the Germany national team. Klose is the coach of the U17 youth team at Bayern Munich.
