Now here’s a question for all you football trivia buffs out there. Which club holds the world record for the most consecutive games won? Chelsea achieved 13 last year in winning the Premier League title, but still fell one short of Arsenal’s Premier League record of 14, but neither were anywhere near the world record total. What about Real Madrid? No. Barca? No again. Not even Bayern Munch? No afraid not. As verified by the Guinness Book of Records, the record run of wins, totalling 24, dates from February to May in 2011, and belongs to a club that you may never have even heard of.

The answer to the conundrum is the Brazilian club Coritiba Foot Ball Club. To be fair however, even to fans of the Coxa – literally translated as ‘Thigh’ – that success probably pales in significance when compared to the 1985 season, when the club won their first and, so far only, Brazilian national title. They then carried the club’s colours in the Copa Libertadores da America the following year, becoming the first club from the state of Paraná to achieve such acclaim.  As the oldest club in the state, founded in 1909, that statistic is probably appropriate, but it was a long journey for the club both from its founding to 1985 and then in the run to the title as well.  Continue reading →