Records, as the word itself means literally, are the evidence of something great or terrible things done in the past. In sports, they take a really special place as good records are things that teams really thrive for.
Be it the most goals, most wins or most trophies, records play a big role in motivating teams and players into giving their best shot at something. The best records are mostly held by the best players and the worst records are stamped to the heads of the, well, not-so-good players.
However, there are often cases where a player or a team becomes an unlikely holder of some record. And here are 5 records that are held by unexpected entities.
#5 Biggest FA Cup final win
These days, the elite clubs don’t really give much attention to the domestic cups, preferring to focus their attention on the league title and the Champions League instead. However, the FA Cup is still regarded by many as an important challenge to win.
When Arsenal won the FA Cup in 2014, a lot of their fans were ecstatic as it marked their first trophy in nine years. Back in the olden days, the FA Cup held, even more, importance – especially before the inception of the European Cup.
And it wasn’t any different in the FA Cup final of 1903 when Bury took on Derby. Both teams contested in the Football League – now known as the Premier League – and actually ended up with the same amount of points that season with 35, but Bury were placed one place higher at 8th because of a superior goal difference.
Naturally, hence, a final between these two was expected to be a tight affair. However, Bury absolutely thrashed Derby by winning the match 6-0, clinching the FA Cup for the second time in their history. To this day, this remains the biggest win by any club in the FA Cup final – and we don’t expect it to be broken anytime soon.
#4 Quickest hat trick in international
Hattricks are one of the most celebrated events in football. Scoring one goal in a game is a difficult task in itself, so scoring a treble of goals in the same game is something that deserves to be celebrated.
When it comes to scoring hattricks, the first person that springs to the mind is Cristiano Ronaldo. The Real Madrid star has scored 47 hattricks in his career thus far – fun fact: that’s just 3 less than the number of hattricks scored in each World Cup combined since 1930 – and is likely to score more before he hangs up his boots.
But did you know that he is not the footballer to score the quickest hattrick in international football? No, it is not even Lionel Messi or any other top player in the world as this distinction belongs to Egypt’s Abdul-Hamid Bassiouny when he scored a hattrick in 155 seconds against Namibia in a World Cup qualifier.
Another fun fact: that was Bassiony’s only three goals with his country in the 14 times that he played for them.
#3 Fastest goal in the Premier League
A lot of wonderful forwards have graced the pitch with their divine presence in the Premier League era. From the all-round beast of a forward in Alan Shearer to the greatest European player of all-time in Cristiano Ronaldo, the English game has had its fair share of world-class forwards.
Even now, some of the best forwards in the world of football ply their trade in the Premiership. While they might not have the two best attackers in Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi – that honour belongs to La Liga – the likes of Sergio Aguero, Harry Kane and Diego Costa raise the standards of the league.
With a history of quality forwards in the league, it is only natural to expect one of them to hold the record for the fastest Premier League goal ever – but that is not the case as this distinction belongs to a King, Ledley King.
The greatest English centre-back that could never be scored the fastest goal in the Premier League era in 2000 when he put the ball in the back of the net within 10 seconds against Bradford City whilst playing for Tottenham Hotspurs.
#2 Fastest World Cup qualifying goal
The general expectation of fans is to see the superstar forwards holding records like these. Fastest hattricks, fastest goals and so on, these are the distinctions that are supposed to be held by the world class player of the footballing fraternity.
If someone asked you who the fastest scorer in the World Cup Qualifying campaign is, you might just shrug and say the Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi or some other well-revered player most probably making a living in Europe. Obviously, this is considering that you are not a football geek.
However, if you didn’t know better, you are definitely not going to name a San Marino player – that is if you remember any of their players’ names any. But for this one, remember the name of Davide Gualtieri – the man who scored the fastest goal in the history of the World Cup qualifying campaign in 1993 when he put the English team in a state of shock after scoring within 8.3 seconds.
England eventually went on to win the game by hammering San Marino 7-1, but no-one has ever erased that embarrassment off of England’s head yet.
#1 Most minutes without conceding in a national league
I added the ‘national league’ part in order to keep former Vasco de Gama’s goalkeeper, Geraldo Pereira Filho, out of this list as his achievement, as magnificent as it was, came when he was playing in a regional league.
While the legendary Dino Zoff holds the record of the most minutes without conceding a goal with 1142 minutes in international football, he doesn’t make it to the overall list. No, it’s neither the legendary Gianluigi Buffon nor the iconic Iker Casillas.
Instead, this honour belongs to former Club Brugge ‘keeper, Danny Verlinden, who didn’t concede a goal for a record 1390 minutes while playing in the Belgian League. It is also highly unlikely that any other shot-stopper could beat this record (that roughly converts to 15 games and 40 minutes) in the near of far future.
Well, finally some goalkeeping record that even Gigi Buffon or Manuel Neuer can’t break.
