Realistically it’s likely to be somebody like USA or Australia. Countries that already have a strong sporting background but where football/“soccer” is not the leading sport in that country. Those countries could more easily fund developing a major push on developing youth football and their domestic leagues to building a strong national team.

Africa produces some great players but it’s hard to see any one country there ever being able to compete with the sporting infrastructure available in richer countries.

Uruguay

They are south American

They have already won it twice

Dani Rojas

In terms of goals I was in the stadium for, Paul Peschisolido for Fulham vs Liverpool at Anfield in 1998 was an incredible goal by a player who would be classed as very average (Fulham were a 3rd tier club that season)

https://youtu.be/cppvRDSAvqw?t=12

I was 3rd choice goalkeeper for my county U15s, started 2 games and got a handful of sub appearances in friendlies.

Tbh I never actually dreamed of being a footballer even at sunday league level. For me the enjoyment of football was having a kick about with my mates. I had more fun playing jumpers for goalposts games or 5 a side with my mates than I ever did in any kind of formal 11 vs 11 fixture for the county or my school. I think the last time I actually kicked a ball was when I was 18 on the last day of sixth form when we all had one last kick about. After I went to uni I found myself in friends groups that were not that into football so just going for a kick around never really happened any more.

Gambling is an addiction and most players who get involved in don’t start out betting on football but on other sports but when they get hooked and start losing money they start betting on football because that’s what they know about and have a better chance of winning on.

Keith Gillespie has spoken about this at various times when discussing his gambling issues.

For him as a footballer in the 90s when he finished training for the day usually around lunchtime/early afternoon he would be bored and have nothing else to do with his time so would go to the bookies. Not much football happening on a midweek afternoon so he would gamble on horses. As with most gamblers he ultimately lost more than he won which can add up to quite a lot of money when you have footballer wages to burn so he would then bet on football as he had more insider knowledge to try and recoup his losses until eventually he started betting on his own teams games.

Faroe Islands

Juventus were already the dominant force in Italian football before he joined (6 titles in a row) so it’s hard to say he actually improved them which does raise questions about the value for money they got from him. You have to think that they would have been able to maintain that dominance for far longer by signing a couple of very good younger players for £50m each rather than one 35yr old for 100m

The Euros by absolutely miles and it’s not even close.

You could even argue that the actual Copa America tournament is completely pointless given that winning the qualifiers for the tournament is arguably a tougher test of a teams ability than the tournament itself. They literally have to play a 18 match round robin league against every other team on the continent.

Four goals in injury time

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63354674

Because Norway spotted his talent and snapped him up before he was even on England’s radar.

He’s been in the Norway youth system since before he even started playing at striker. He started out at a 2nd tier team in Norway so was never actually expected to develop into a world class player who would have a chance at playing for England. It wasn’t even a guarantee he would become a professional footballer at that point as he was setting junior age bracket records in Long Jump You can hardly blame him aged 14 for opting to play for Norway when their U15s team called him up.

It’s not unusual for a crap national team to have one or two great players who never get the chance to shine on the international stage.

Giggs, Best, Hyypia, Litmanen, Ian Rush all have European Cups to their name and never played in a world cup. George Weah has a Champions League golden boot and a Ballon D’or and never played at a world cup.

If that had been in the FA cup instead of the league cup it would still be talked about as one of the greatests upset ever every year on the TV coverage along with Hereford vs Newcastle.

Very much a symptom of the more defensive nature of Italian football particularly through the 90s - In 93/94 AC Milan won the league scoring just 36 goals in a 34 game season.

Also all of the most capped outfield players for Italy are defenders and defensive midfielders. And if you look at the caps of Italy’s all time top scorers only Del Pierro has more than 64 caps with the rest mostly around the 30-60 cap range so you wouldn’t expect many to get 35+ goals

Loads of prominent Liverpool players over the years have been reported as boyhood Everton fans. Carragher is an obvious one, Gerrard has been strongly rumoured although there seems to be some denial around it, Robbie Fowler grew up an Evertonian as did Michael Owen (his dad started his career at Everton), Steve McManaman admits he grew up as an Everton fan.

Football is increasingly becoming about supporting a favourite player rather than a favourite team. Fans of Mess and Ronaldo see them as rivals the same way Man U and Liverpool fans see their teams as rivals.

Just look how many fans change which team they follow as soon as one of those players moves club.

The clubs owners failed to recognise that SAF took 3 years to win anything when he first arrived at Man U and another 3 years after that before they won the league and started winning thing regularly.

I know modern football demands instant success but if you want a manager who is going to build a long term legacy you have to be prepared to back them through thick and thin long term. Changing managers every 2-3 years will only ever bring fleeting success. SAF turned Man U into the dominant force in English Football because he was there long enough to bring through squad of home grown players who had grown up learning to play his style of football. Most of the home grown players in Man Us first team today have had their football development re-directed about 5 times before they made their first team debut.

Couple this with a lack of investment in training facilities and they really have no hope to ever compete consistently. At best they might have the occasional good season where they spend enough to win something once every 5 years or so.