The birth of the fifa world cup

Simply called the world cup, it is an international football competition contested currently by thirty two (32) national teams. The participants or contestants must be members of Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the official governing body of world football.
It is every player's dream in his career to feature at least once in the FIFA world cup. The joy that is felt when one is wearing that national team's Jersey at the world cup can not be over emphasized. The competition is held every four years since its inauguration in 1930, with the exception of 1942 and 1946 which was not held due to second world war. Uruguay became the first country to host and be crowned the world champions.
The history of world cup could be traced back to summer Olympics when it accommodated football as one of the competitive sports in 1920. It was contested by thirteen (13) European national teams and Egypt of Africa; Belgium won the tournament. In 1924, Uruguay won the first two championship organized by FIFA in the summer Olympics. With the success in Olympic football competitions, FIFA, spearheaded by its President Jules Rimet started looking for ways of staging an international tournament which will not be affiliated to Olympics.
Uruguay was named host of the inaugural world cup tournament in 1930. At the inaugural tournament, only thirteen (13) national teams contested: seven from south America, four from Europe and two from North America (Wikipedia). The first goal scored in the history of the tournament was scored by Lucien Laurent of France in their 4-1 triumph over mexico on 13 July, 1930. Uruguay defeated Argentina 4-2 in the final to become the first country to win the tournament.
The tournament was contested at first by fourteen (14) national teams and eventually increased to sixteen (16) in 1934. In 1982, the competition was expanded to twenty four (24) national teams of member states of FIFA. However, the tournament was expanded to thirty two (32) in 1998 to accommodate more teams from Africa, Asia and North America.There are plans by FIFA to further expand the tournament to forty eight (48) teams. Hence, the new FIFA president, Giani Infantino, with the confirmation of FIFA council has agreed that from 2026 there will be 48 national teams in the world cup.
The qualification process can start as early as three years before the final tournament and last over a two year period (Wikipedia). The host country is considered an automatic qualified team. They do not take part in the qualifying matches. The defending champions enjoyed same privileged until 2006 when that right was withdrawn, requiring defending champions to play qualification matches.
So far, Brazil remain the most successful country in the tournament with five world cups. Germany and Italy have also enjoyed a successful spell in the tournament with both teams boosting of four world cups a piece.
There are awards reserved and awarded to the best and outstanding players of the tournament. The golden ball is awarded to the best player, the golden boot for the top scorer, the best young player aged 21 or less.
Antonio Carbajal of mexico and Lothar Matthaus of Germany are the only players to feature in five world cup tournaments. While Germany's Miroslav Klose is the all time top scorer of the competition.
In conclusion, the world cup tournament has become a global accepted way of promoting peace, culture and entertainment across different races and religions of the world.