Italy The world cup in Brazil

About Italian soccer

Soccer, or football as most of the world knows it, is a national passion in many countries, especially Italy. Italian soccer fans have good reason to be passionate: Their country's national team has won the World Cup championship four times and is consistently ranked among the best in the world. In addition, Italian league teams attract some of the top soccer talent in the world.

History

• Italy's national soccer association, known as the Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio, or FIGC, formed in 1898 and is a part of the Union of European Football Associations, or UEFA. According to the website Worldfootballnet, the Italian national team's nickname is the "Squadra Azzurra" or "Blue Squad," a reference to the team's blue and white uniforms.

World Cup success

• The International Federation of Association Football, the governing body of world soccer, held the first World Cup tournament in 1930. Since then, the FIFA World Cup has become one of the most popular sporting events in the world. Italy has won the World Cup four times, more than any nation except five-time winner Brazil. Italy won back-to-back World Cup titles in 1934 and 1938. Italy won its third World Cup at the 1982 tournament in Spain and its fourth in Germany in 2006.

League Winners

• Serie A is Italy's top professional soccer league, consisting of 20 of the country's top ranked teams. Juventus of Turin has won the league title a record 27 times since the league's inception in the 1890s, World Football reports. International of Milan, better known as Inter, has won the Serie A title 18 times, including five consecutive times from 2006 to 2010. Another Milan club, AC Milan, has won the title 17 times.

Best league teams

• • • • The big teams in Italy are AC Milan, Juventus and Inter Milan Juventus have won the Serie A league 27 times.

Inter Milan have won the league 18 times.

AC Milan have won the league 17 times.

Italian Cup

• The Italian Cup is Italy's top national tournament, pitting soccer clubs from across the country. The first Italian Cup took place in 1922, with AC Vado winning. The tournament did not occur again until 1936, when Torino FC won. Two clubs, Juventus and AS Roma, hold the record for the most Italian Cup wins, with nine victories each, according to World Football. Inter and ACF Fiorentina have won the tournament six times each.

BEST LEAGUE SCCER GOALS

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