USA 1994
A nation where basketball, baseball and American football were the dominant sports; USA 1994 was the final frontier left for football and FIFA to conquer. The tournament was a definite success with record attendances. Diego Maradona was sent home after the first two matches following a failed drug test and Argentina exited soon after. Champions Germany were surprisingly knocked by Hristo Stoichkov’s Bulgaria who were having the best tournament in their history. Nigeria carried the African hopes into the round of 16 where they almost knocked out Italy. But the Azzurris were helped by divine intervention from their talisman Roberto Baggio. He scored a late goal that sent the match into extra-time and then scored a penalty that won the match for Italy. In another match, Russia’s Oleg Salenko wrote history scoring five goals in a single match against Cameroon. In the same match Roger Milla became the oldest goal-scorer in World Cup history at 42. Saudia Arabia had their moment as with Saeed Owairan scoring the best goal of the tournament. While the Baggio inspired Italians marched on beating Spain and Bulgaria, Brazil did the same with Romario and Bebeto in their side. They beat hosts USA, Netherlands and Sweden to enter the final. The final was a non-event which ended in a goal-less draw. The match went into penalties and agony beckoned for Baggio who missed the decisive penalty. After a long spell of 24 years, captain Dunga brought back the Cup home to Brazil.
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Winners: Brazil
Runners -Up: Italy
Golden Boot: Oleg Salenko (Rus), Hristo Stoichkov (Bul)