UNCONVENTIONAL WORLD RECORDS

Francisco “Pancho” Varallo (born 5th February 1910) played as a forward for Argentina in the first World Cup final, on 30th July 1930. He is the only player still alive from that tournament which was held in Uruguay.

He was the youngest player in that first World Cup.

In that match, Uruguay, the Olympic champions, defeated Argentina 4-2 in front of 93,000 spectators. The next day was declared a national holiday in Uruguay, while in Buenos Aires, stones were thrown at the Uruguayan consulate.

A more recent photo of Varallo:

The stadium where the match was played:

One of the balls used in the final:

In the whole tournament, Varallo scored one goal, in a group match on 19th July 1930 against Mexico which Argentina won 6-3.

In 1933, he was topscorer in all of South America, with 34 goals. At club level, he played for Boca Juniors, in which he’s the highest ever goalscorer with 181 goals which stood for many years until it was broken by Martin Palermo in 2009! In fact, in his nineties, his sense of humour was intact: he was quoted to have said that he would have to come out of retirement if Palermo beat his record.

He did not play (not selected?) in the 1934 and 1938 World Cups.

He retired from professional football in 1940 aged 30.

He recently celebrated his 100th birthday.

Incredible, considering all that was achieved during a time when there was no such thing as catching up on no xplode reviews to enhance performance.

He has been awarded the FIFA order of merit, the body’s highest honour: it had only ever been given 3 times previously, to Pele, Franz Beckenbauer and Bobby Moore. The Argentine Football Association honoured him by giving him a striped blue-and-white Argentina team shirt, emblazoned with the words “Varallo,” and what else but number 100 on the back.

Still, the pain of losing that final still lingered:

However, in my whole life I’ve never felt such a bitter pain as losing that World Cup Final against Uruguay in 1930.

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