Major Developments Major Developments by Calendar Year

The 18^th FIFA world cup 2006 was held from 09^th June 2006 to 09^th July 2006 in Germany. Sixty Four matches were conducted between 32 teams of different nations. The month of football in Germany attracted not only 3,359,439 spectators attending matches in the 12 wonderful stadiums (and Fan Fest millions) but also worldwide audience of more than 30 billion people. The World Cup was won by Italy by defeating France and clinched their fourth World Cup title. The winner of Adidas Golden Ball was Zinedine Zidane (France). Playing his last game before retiring, Zinedine Zidane’s career ended with bad reputation, as he was sent off for crazily colliding his head with Marco Materazzi (Italy) chest. He was expelled many times from matches for his violent conduct. He is one among the four persons who made three goals in World cup final matches. The winner of Adidas Golden Shoe is Miroslav Klose (Germany) as he had done five goals. Portugal’s flying winner Cristiano Ronaldo was another individual to flash as his team entered the last four for the first time since 1966.