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21 unusual facts about 2006 FIFA World Cup


2006–07 Middlesbrough F.C. season

On 4 May 2006, Steve McClaren was chosen to take over as the manager of the England national team after the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

Ajou University

Ahn Jung-Hwan (2002 FIFA World Cup and 2006 FIFA World Cup member of Korean National Team)

BigSoccer

The site has more than 150,000 registered users, and had over 1.2 million unique visitors during the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

Breakin' Away / That's Livin' Alright

For England's national football team's 2006 FIFA World Cup campaign, Fagin performed "That's England Alright", a variation of "That's Livin' Alright" produced by Clive Langer, with lyrics by Jimmy Lawless.

Championship Manager 2006

On 2 June 2006, to tie in with the 2006 FIFA World Cup, an update pack was released on the Championship Manager website, for the PC.

David Geddis

Most recently, Geddis was Reserve Team Coach at Leeds United, a job he took up after scouting for England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson and the English FA at the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

FIFA 06: Road to FIFA World Cup

The game is an officially licensed product of the 2006 FIFA World Cup finals held in Germany.

Football in Montenegro

After independence in June 2006, Montenegro was still represented by the Serbia and Montenegro team which had qualified for the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

However, at the 2006 FIFA World Cup, held in the latter half of June and in July 2006, Serbia and Montenegro continued to play, representing the two independent states of Serbia and Montenegro.

Football in Portugal

The Portuguese national team reached the semi-finals of the FIFA World Cup twice; in 1966, when Eusébio was the top scorer, with nine goals, and also in 2006, led by Cristiano Ronaldo and Luís Figo.

Football in Switzerland

With a very young squad, the Swiss national team participated in the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany and were narrowly beaten by Ukraine in penalties.

Friends of FundeCruz

The plight of its people only became known following the selection of seven of the villages' sons to represent Ecuador's eleven member team in the World Cup in 2002 and 2006.

Ivana Knežević

After winning Miss Crna Gora 2006, Knežević was the first official international representation of Montenegro as an independent state, after the country competed united with Serbia in previous international events such as Miss Universe 2006, the 2006 FIFA World Cup and the 2006 FIBA World Championship that were held after the nation's independence.

MV Agusta Brutale series

Brutale 910 R Italia - a commemorative model to celebrate the Italian national football team championship in the 2006 World Cup in the color of the national football team, each model was awarded to each team member which will also bear the same number as his jersey, only 124 will be built (including 24 awarded bikes).

Pickelhaube

In the lead-up to the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, a moulded plastic version of the Pickelhaube was available as a fanware article.

Racing for Holland

Shortly before the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Racing For Holland liveried their cars for the 2006 24 Hours of Le Mans in the motif of a soccer ball, having received support from Dutch soccer legend Johan Cruijff.

Samsung Hauzen Cup

The 2006 edition was played during summer, allowing the top K-League players to focus on the World Cup finals in Germany.

TV4 Sport

The deal meant that Sport-Expressen could use several sports rights held by TV4, including reruns of games from the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

U.S. Città di Pontedera

Marcello Lippi, head coach of Italy national team and World Cup champion in the 2006 FIFA World Cup, started his professional managing career as Pontedera head coach in 1985/1986.

World Cuppa

World Cuppa was a one-hour ITV4 show, which launched on 9 June 2006 and ran for the duration of the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

XM Deportivo

During June and July 2006, this channel broadcast the Spanish language play-by-play of the FIFA World Cup 2006.


Alberto Junior Rodríguez

Rodríguez started representing Peru during the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, and quickly became a defensive cornerstone for the national side, representing it at the 2007 Copa América in an eventual quarterfinal exit.

All-seater stadium

Either temporary seats have to be installed (as is the case with Croke Park, home to the Republic of Ireland national team during the Lansdowne Road redevelopment), or the standing areas must be converted to seating (as is the case with several of the larger stadiums in Germany, many of which were used in an all-seater configuration for the 2006 FIFA World Cup).

Baba Adamu

He currently has 8 caps, the last of which was in a 1–0 defeat against Mexico on 1 March 2006 in a Pre-2006 FIFA World Cup International friendly in Frisco, Texas, US.

Breitscheidplatz

Its importance as a major hub diminished when in preparation for the 2006 FIFA World Cup the new Berlin Hauptbahnhof was completed at the site of the former Lehrter Bahnhof; this is now the main train station in Berlin, and the German Intercity-Express and InterCity long distance trains no longer stop by default at Zoologischer Garten.

Bussunda

Bussunda died of a heart attack in a hotel in the neighbourhood of Parsdorf in Vaterstetten, a suburb of Munich, Germany, where some members of Casseta & Planeta accompanied the Brazilian national team at the World Cup, for a series of TV shows.

Damian Gorawski

He was named for the 23-men Polish squad for the 2006 FIFA World Cup finals held in Germany, but was subsequently dropped in favor of Bartosz Bosacki having failed medical tests after being diagnosed with severe asthma.

Enrique Borja

He was co-commentator for the American television network, Univision, for the FIFA World Cup Germany 2006 tournament (June – July 2006), with Fernando Fiore, a veteran Univision sports commentator.

Eul-Yong Ta

Eul-Yong Ta influenced new terms such as Eul-Yong Chook and "Zidane-Ta" in South Korea when Zidane headbutted Marco Materazzi during the final round of the 2006 World Cup.

French Guiana national football team

Bernard Lama and Florent Malouda are two examples of Guianese players who have played for the French national team, the former winning the 1998 World Cup and the latter playing as a runner-up during the 2006 World Cup.

Haeundae District

During the 2006 FIFA World Cup match between South Korea and Togo more than 50,000 spectators filled the beach to cheer for the Korean team on a giant projector screen.

Hans Hagelstein

In 2006 he was contacted by Leo Beenhakker with whom he worked together at Feyenoord in the 1990s to become his team manager for Trinidad and Tobago during the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

Heidewaldstadion

The Portuguese national team based their training camp for the 2006 FIFA World Cup finals at Marienfeld in Kreis Gütersloh, so a public training session of the soccer stars took place in Gütersloh.

Indianapolis Braves

Their playing squad included defender Eric Descombes, a current full international player for Mauritania who played in both of that country's 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifying games against Zimbabwe in 2003, and former professionals John Swann and Moussa Dagnogo.

J. A. Adande

Adande's assignments at the Los Angeles Times included the Olympic Games, Wimbledon, the Super Bowl, the NCAA Final Four, the NBA, Major League Baseball and World Cup 2006.

Juan Cuyami

His debut came on 11 October 2003 in a 1–0 win against Togo for the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifiers (eventual 1–2 aggregate loss), in Bata.

KWKW

(Some weekend games and the final will be carried on KSPN, while a daily recap show airs on KLAA.) The 2006 coverage was in Spanish.

Leeuwenhosen

Leeuwenhosen (singular leeuwenhose) are orange-colored, lion-tailed overalls distributed by the Bavaria Brewery, a popular Dutch beer brewery, during the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

Luisão

In the next year, Luisão was named in the Brazilian squad for the 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup, but did not play a single second, meeting the same fate in the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

Mauro Esposito

On 9 October 2004, Esposito made his debut for the Italian national team, in a 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Slovenia, starting in a 0–1 loss in Celje.

Media Markt

Prior to the 2006 World Cup, Media Markt launched a campaign, claiming to be the "best fan supplier" ("Bester Fanausrüster"), with commercials showing international football fans shopping at Media Markt, showing exaggerated stereotypes of the participating countries, and making fun of the Austria team, which did not qualify.

Moritz Eggert

Moritz Eggert created the opening ceremony for the 2006 FIFA World Cup (together with director Christian Stueckl and stage designer Marlene Pohley) and is currently working on a new opera for the Beethovenfest and the Bonn opera house (“Freax”, together with librettist Hannah Duebgen, premiere September 2007, director: Christoph Schlingensief).

New Varna Stadium

The sport complex and its concept will be built by the German architect company GMP International GmbH, which built several stadiums for the 2006 FIFA World Cup (including the renovation of the Olympiastadion in Berlin and the construction of the Commerzbank-Arena in Frankfurt).

Nortec Collective

The song "Tijuana Makes Me Happy" is one of the soundtracks in 2006 FIFA World Cup video game and the title song of the feature film by the same name.

Serse Cosmi

He guided the team for four consecutive years, winning a UEFA Intertoto Cup, showing valid coaching abilities and launching several players, including 2006 FIFA World Cup winner Marco Materazzi (who reached a career high of 12 goals in a single season under Cosmi's tenure), then-unknown Japanese Hidetoshi Nakata, Fabrizio Miccoli, Fabio Grosso and Fabio Liverani.

Shimon Stein

In 2006 Stein called on the German government to stop Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from visiting the FIFA World Cup.

Sönke Wortmann

During the Confederations Cup 2005 and the Football World Cup 2006 he joined the German football team on their trip.

Tofiq Bahramov

When England were drawn in the same group as Azerbaijan in qualifying for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, a ceremony was held prior to the meeting at the stadium to honor his memory, with attendees including Geoff Hurst, Michel Platini and Sepp Blatter.

Tommy Smyth

In 2007 he joined ESPN's MLS broadcast team and has also done a few World Cups for ESPN, including 2006, where he partnered with Adrian Healey.

Voicst

Their follow-up single, Whatever You Want From Life, was used in a Heineken commercial, and was also featured in the video game 2006 FIFA World Cup.

Yussif Chibsah

He was captain of the Ghana olympic team, who exited in the first round of the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, having finished in third place in Group B and was also the captain of the Ghana Meteors in the 2003 All Africa Games in Abuja that won the bronze medal.His international efforts was recognized as he was a member of the Ghanaian standby players in 2006 World Cup in Germany after playing most of the matches of the qualifying round.