Keir Starmer's time as an MP — which will finish a little shy of 11.5 years — is the shortest overall time any UK Prime Minister has been in the House of Commons for since the Earl of Rosebery, who was PM from March 1894 to June 1895 and was never an MP at any point in his life.

The 2030 tournament will be the first World Cup without Lionel Messi playing in the lifetimes of everyone in the world under the age of 27 at the time it starts.

Bruno Fernandes has now scored the same number of hat-tricks for Manchester United as Cristiano Ronaldo (three).

Play today's Connections: Soccer Edition puzzle here! 🧩⚽️: t.co/AszCBN705d

If you excluded every goal Cristiano Ronaldo has scored in his career with his stronger right foot he would now still have scored more goals than Diego Maradona's overall total (346 v 345).

There is not a single Champions League-winning manager in charge of a Premier League club right now - the last time that this was the case at the start of a season was 1998-99.

Today's Connections: Soccer Edition puzzle is here 🧩⚽️: www.nytimes.com/athletic/con...

#OTD in 1977, Dieter Müller scored six goals in a Bundesliga game for Köln against Werder Bremen — the only time a player has ever scored more than five goals in a Bundesliga match.

The upcoming cricket game between Australia and Bangladesh in Darwin will be the first Test match ever played in Australia in August. 🏏

There were eight Barcelona players in Spain’s World Cup squad, with only three World Cup-winning sides having more players from one club in their squad:

There was not a single penalty shootout from the quarter-finals onwards at the 2026 World Cup — the first time this has ever happened at a World Cup since the first penalty shootout took place in the competition.

The winner of the World Cup Golden Ball has played for the winning team at two consecutive tournaments for the first time since 1982 & 1986: 1982: Paolo Rossi 🇮🇹 & 1986: Diego Maradona 🇦🇷 2022: Lionel Messi 🇦🇷 & 2026: Rodri 🇪🇸

There were eight Barcelona players in the Spain squad at the 2026 World Cup. The last World Cup winners to have more players from one club than this in their squad were Uruguay in 1950: they had nine Peñarol players.

Lionel Messi has played in 3.2% of all World Cup games in history.

The result yesterday means that 4-2 is no longer the outright most-common scoreline in the World Cup final. 1-0 has now also happened four times.

At just four of the 23 World Cups has the Golden Boot winner represented the winning team: 1962: Garrincha & Vavá for 🇧🇷 1978: Mario Kempes for 🇦🇷 1982: Paolo Rossi for 🇮🇹 2002: Ronaldo for 🇧🇷

The goals-per-game average at the 2026 World Cup of 2.96 was the highest since the 1970 tournament (2.97). Still some way off the 5.38 in 1954 though! Here is how it has changed through history:

The 2030 World Cup will be the first in history where the defending champions are also a host nation.

Very pleased to say that due to its popularity during the World Cup, Connections: Soccer Edition will be continuing every day for the foreseeable future! Play today's game here ⚽️🧩: www.nytimes.com/athletic/con...

Spain are the first country to win the World Cup twice in the 21st century.

Ferran Torres, who scored the winning goal for Spain in the World Cup final, was born on February 29 and he was congratulated afterwards by Spain's prime minister — Pedro Sánchez — who was also born on February 29.

This was the first World Cup final without an Inter Milan player since 1978 (and a Bayern Munich player but that was confirmed before kick-off).

Five of the last six World Cup finals have gone to extra time.

Today's Connections: Soccer Edition puzzle is here ⚽️🧩: www.nytimes.com/athletic/con...

#OTD in 1930, Argentina's Guillermo Stábile scored the first of his eight goals at that year's World Cup. His four appearances in that tournament were the only international matches he played, meaning his goals-per-game average for Argentina was 2.0 (eight goals in four games).

Countries to have had a player score a World Cup hat-trick since Brazil last did (Pelé in 1958): 🇩🇪: 5 hat-tricks (3 as West Germany) 🇦🇷: 4 🇵🇹: 4 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿: 4 🇫🇷: 3 🇭🇺: 2 🇵🇱: 2 🇷🇺: 2 (1 as Soviet Union) 🇪🇸: 2 🇨🇦: 1 🇨🇿: 1 (As Czechoslovakia) 🇩🇰: 1 🇮🇹: 1 🇳🇱: 1 🇵🇪: 1 🇨🇭: 1 Yugoslavia: 1

Exactly a third of Kylian Mbappé's France goals have been scored at the World Cup (22/66).

If there are five goals in today's final then the 2026 World Cup will have averaged exactly three goals per game — which would be the first time a World Cup has averaged 3.0 goals per game (or higher) since the 1958 tournament (3.6).

The 2026 World Cup is England's best-ever performance in a World Cup on foreign soil.

France and England in 2026 (both 20 goals) are the first teams to score 20+ goals at a World Cup since France in 1958 (23 goals). The most scored by a side at one World Cup is Hungary with 27 in 1954.