Sport Club Corinthians Paulista: Encyclopedia II - Sport Club Corinthians Paulista - Trivia

Sport Club Corinthians Paulista - Trivia

Sport Club Corinthians Paulista - The Mule's Skull

There is a popular superstition in Brazil (of probable African origin) saying that a place can be made unwholesome or cursed by burying a mule's skull in it. In 1976, after 22 years of no success, Corinthians was startled by the "revelation" that a mule's skull had been found buried exactly in the midfield of Parque São Jorge during the replacement of the grass. The superstitious fans believed that the curse had ended (although no record of the finding subsist). The team eventually won the 1977 São Paulo State league.

Sport Club Corinthians Paulista - The Stars from Terrão

One of the biggest Corinthians proud is the tradition to reveal new talent football players. Different from your main rivals, who has used to sign with players from other clubs, Corinthians always give a chance to the youngers. And these is no motive to regret. Historic midfielder Roberto Rivelino, the goalkeeper Ronaldo and several stars was born in the Parque São Jorge's Terrão -- a field in bad conditions that had more earth than grass (in portuguese terra means earth). Today Terrão was substituted by the Ecologic Park Trainng Camp, a modern complex that is yet underconstruction. The recent professional team is full of players that born in Terrão. Player like Betão, Eduardo Ratinho, Ronny, Bruno Octávio, Wendell, Élton, Bôbo, Edson and much many others. In some of the most important teams of the world, at least one Terrão star is playing or was play from a good period. Some examples are Sylvinho in Barcelona, Cris in Olympique Lyon, Edu in Valencia, Ewerthon in Borussia Dortmund, Paulo Sérgio (Bayer Munich) and much many others.

Sport Club Corinthians Paulista - FIFA World Champions

In the year 2000, FIFA created the Club World Championship, a competition that should have been played every two years, but has had a single tournament so far because of lack of interest from UEFA clubs. Corinthians entered the competition as the host country's (Brazil) previous champions, and managed to win the title.

In Brazil there is much discussion if Corinthians should be called "World Champions" after winning the FIFA Club World Championship in 2000. Practically every supporter of any rival club in Brazil consider that Corinthians is not a legitimate champion, taking in consideration that the club has never won the traditional America's title, the "Copa Libertadores de América".

The second edition of the Club World Championship organised by FIFA is to be held in December this year in Japan, to replace the Intercontinental Cup, whose winners were duly noted by FIFA as being World Champions.

Corinthians' group results were as follows:

Corinthians - Raja Casablanca (Morocco): 2:0

Corinthians - Real Madrid (Spain): 2:2 (in this game, the forward Edílson scores a historical goal when he passed the ball between the legs of Real Madrid defender Karembeu);(A match with referre problems, with 7 yellow cards (though no red), with a "legitimate" goal by the Brazilian club disallowed).

Corinthians - Al Nassr (Saudi Arabia): 2:0 (in this game, Corinthians scored a contraversial goal, that enabled the Brazilian team to play the final, due to having scored more goals than Real Madrid).

The seven points won in the group stage enabled Corinthians to play the grand final of the tournament against Brazil's Vasco da Gama, in the Maracanã Stadium. The final match ended in a 0:0 draw, and in the penalty shootout Corinthians won 4:3 after Vasco player Edmundo missed his penalty.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Trivia", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki