Presidents and Namesake
The first president of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) was Robert Guerin, who served from 1904 to 1906. The longest-serving FIFA president was Jules Rimet (right), who led the way from 1921 to 1954. The original World Cup trophy was named for him.

Small beginnings
The 1930 World Cup was the only one without qualifying tournaments. It was an invitational, and 13 nations chose to do so. Since then, every nation participating has qualified. The previous World Cup was in Qatar, in 2022. Argentina defeated France to win it all.

The first goal
Lucien Laurent of France (left) scored the first-ever World Cup goal, in his team's defeat of Mexico in the very first match, in 1930. Laurent scored in the 19th minute, and France won 4–1.

Brazil has its own trophy
Brazil has won the World Cup five times. After winning their third title, in 1970, FIFA gave the original Jules Rimet Trophy to Brazil to keep. Thus, in 1974 came a new World Cup Trophy.

Trophy theft
In 1983, Brazilian officials reported that original trophy stolen, and it has not been found. An investigation resulted in the arrests of four men, but none of them ever told what they had done with the trophy. The Brazilian Confederation now has a replica, which is also what the winning nation now gets: FIFA always hang on to the official trophy.

Dog saves the day
The 1983 theft was the second time that the trophy had been stolen. The first was in 1966, in England. That trophy was recovered, thanks to a dog named Pickles.

Dog in the fray
Another dog featured in a World Cup match in 1962, in a quarterfinal match between Brazil and England. After a few unsuccessful attempts, English player Jimmy Greaves corralled the Chilean dog, which had run onto the pitch during the match. Greaves, a dog-lover, convinced the dog to let him pick it up and then carried it off (but not before the worried dog had relieved itself down Greaves's shirt). A Brazilian magazine later brought the dog to Brazil and organized a raffle within the team to determine its owner. The winner was Manuel Francisco dos Santos, known better by his nickname of Garrincha, who had been unsuccessful at taking hold of the dog during the match but had scored two of his team's goals in their 3–1 victory and led Brazil to its ultimate victory in the final. He named the dog Bi, short for bicampeonato (two-time champion). Brazil had previously won in 1958.

Eight-legged prognosticator
Another animal captured the imaginations of World Cup-watchers around the world (and in Germany, in particular) in 2010. This was Paul the Octopus, who famously "predicted" correctly a handful of matches during that competition.