The World Cup: Soccer's Global Championship

The World Cup: Soccer's Global Championship — page 7
FIFA president Jules Rimet believed the sport was in need of something big to reach its full potential So he introduced an idea for a new international tournament It would feature national teams made up of a country's top players but unlike the Olympics this tournament would feature professional players The World Cup he proposed would be held every four years to decide which nation truly ruled the international game FIFA announced that Uruguay would host the first World Cup in 1930 It was an ambitious plan The 1930 tournament however fell flat An economic crisis called the Great Depression 1929 1942 had gripped the world For European nations a trip to South America would be costly Many simply declined the invitation That included England which would have been the overwhelming favorite to win the title The 1930 World Cup had 13 teams Seven came from South American nations Two were from North America Just four were from Europe The first matches were played on July 13 Lucien Laurent of France scored the first World Cup goal He later said that no one at the time could have guessed how big the World Cup would one day become We were playing Mexico and it was snowing since it was winter in the southern hemisphere Laurent said One of my teammates centered the ball and I followed its path carefully taking it on the volley with my right foot and scoring a goal Everyone was pleased but Lucien Laurent front row center we didn't all roll around on the ground Nobody is shown with some of his French realized that history was being made A quick teammates He died in 2005 about four months after his 97th birthday handshake and we got on with the game 10 THE WORLD CUP