Photo Gallery A Worldwide Kick
"You keep your eyes fixed on the ball, for ninety minutes" -- that's how Raimond Aumann, the former goalkeeper of FC Bayern München, describes his job.
"Football is a game that unites all nations, all races, all religions, all ages and all sexes," says FIFA president Joseph Blatter.
Eight feet tall and 24 feet wide -- those are the measurements for soccer goals established in England long ago and still maintained by FIFA today.
In the late 1970s, German soccer pro Franz Beckenbauer moved to the USA to play for the Cosmos of New York. The club's popularity waned over the years -- because they kept winning. In 1980, "Kaiser Franz" returned to Germany. He says he has no regrets: "I just wanted to improve my English and see a different part of the world."
Where else?
"Now we're quits!" called a masked fan of the Boca soccer club after two fans of the opposing team, River Plate Buenos Aires, were shot. River Plate had won 2:0.
Andrés Escobar, a 27-year-old player on Columbia's national team, was shot in front of a Medellin restaurant in July 1994, accused by the leaders of an illegal betting cartel of having ruined the game. More than 100,000 Columbians came to his funeral.
Whether two exceptional strikers can co-exist on the same team is a question that has been debated among German soccer fans ever since 1970, when Gerd Müller and Uwe Seeler played side by side. Here Rudi Völler and Jürgen Klinsmann jockey for the ball.
It's called a "ball" in English, a "pallone" in Italian, a "pilka" in Polish and a "top" in Turkish.
50,000 people live on the Faroe Islands. 6,200 are registered soccer players.
The famous mural of Diego Armando Maradona in Naples.
Real Madrid has an impressive record: between 1902 and 2005, the Spanish soccer club won 17 national titles.
