A divorce, betting on your partner, swimming with crocodiles... These are the most bizarre stories of the Soccer World Cups

A man he threw himself into a river full of crocodiles to get tickets for the world cup in south africaa Uruguayan player returned to the field immediately after suffering a heart attack in 1954 and a Russian coupleand separated after arguing about who was the better player, yeah Lionel Messi either Cristiano Ronaldo.

These are some of the incredible stories about the World Cupss compiled in a new book by the Argentine writer Luciano Wernickepublished in several languages ​​days before the start of the World Cup in Qatar on Sunday.

Wernicke has been collecting rstriking elatos in sports, but also in politics and culture from the first Soccer World Cup in Uruguay 1930 to Russia 2018.

Since a coach who fell asleep in the middle of the game in the 1930 World Cup in Uruguay due to formaldehyde accidentally spilled on a playing field until hilarious cabalsthe book “Unusual stories from the Soccer World Cups” tells the most human side of the most popular sport in the world.

“It is a book that covers the most important sporting event of humanity from different aspects. One is sports, but given its global significance it also includes very significant events at a political, social, economic level, ”he told Reuters Wernicke, 52 years old.

"And then there are other pearls that are interesting to see, which may be smaller stories but that somehow describe what passion for soccer is," he added.

Among many others, the book recounts the unusual story of an albanian man that in 1994, when the World Cup was being played in the United States, he bet his wife in a sports betting house that Argentina beat Bulgaria and lost, being left without his wife, who abandoned him in horror.

Another incredible story tells that in the World Cup in South Africa 2010 a local radio offered two tickets to the final to whoever did the most madness and a man he threw himself into a river full of crocodileswhile his wife was filming him and his brother was guarding him with a rifle so that he would not end up swallowed.

This is the third edition of the book, which was translated into 20 languages and each World Cup is being incorporated into a new chapter, so the author is already collecting data on Qatar, a World Cup that promises to have several curious aspects.

“There are many things, in the first place there are all these demands for a boycott and the issue of human rights. Outside of sports, there will undoubtedly be a lot. The social is going to weigh heavily," said the author, who wrote more than 20 books on sports, including "Dark Goals," about how politicians and dictators used soccer for their personal gain.