Chp 305. Best FIFA World Cup Anthem / Song

FIFA has its own official anthem/song every World Cup. And such songs are all about the “spirit of the game”, regardless of whether you win or lose. And listening to them usually pumps you up before any game.

For this 2010 World Cup, the official song is Shakira’s “Waka waka”, which was a real let down for me because I like K’naan’s “Wavin’ flag” so much better. But then again, Ricky Martin’s “La Copa de Vida” was the official World Cup song of 1998 and Anastacia’s “Boom” was for 2002 World Cup. Not surprising that Shakira's song was chosen, if you look at the past official songs

As my wise friend once told me, “World Cup songs must appeal to the masses, and not just football fans.”

Touché. Here, you be the judge. Purely from a football perspective (forget the oh so curved dancers and bootie shakers), which song do you think should be the official 2010 World Cup song?


SHAKIRA – Waka waka.




K’NAAN – Wavin’ flag.




To me, Wavin’ Flag is still the song I play every day the moment I reach office. The song has so much depth and intensity, coupled with emotion and passion. Plus, it really does inspire me, especially if you had listened to the original version before.


Which World Cup song/anthem is your favorite?

Mine is definitely this…

To be number one… running like the wind
Playing hard but always playing fair.

To be number one… winning again and again
Reaching higher through Italian sky.


Yup. World Cup 1990. Italia '90.

Here is the song “To be number one” by Giorgio Moroder. This is the best World Cup song in my book. I still remember listening and singing it so many times when I was in hostel during this World Cup at St. Thomas Boy’s School, Calcutta (I used to sing it as “reaching high, the BLUE Italian sky” ). Even in Mizoram, many artists sang this song before football tournaments etc. This was a very popular song back home, and it still is.



The 1990 World Cup was the World Cup my team Netherlands was eliminated in the first round of the knock-out stage by West Germany, who later moved on to win the title, defeating Argentina in the Finals.

Yup, this was what I meant by the “Dutch disaster” in my previous post. Because the Dutch had just won the UEFA European Football Championship ’88 before this World Cup, beating West Germany 2-1 in the semi-finals. That particular Dutch team was declared by many football pundits as the best Dutch team so far. They had the likes of Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullit, Ronald Koeman and Frank Rijkaard in their roster, while W.Germany had the legends Lothar Matthaeus, Juergen Klinsmann and Rudi Voller. When the two teams met in the '90 Italia World Cup two years after that, W.Germany won 2-1.

I managed to dig out this archive from FIFA. Italia '90 Germany FR vs Netherlands. Frank Rijkaard and Rudi Voller were both shown the red card in the 22nd minute. Rijkaard spat on Rudi, making it one of those “unforgettable moments” of Italia '90



Tonight, 20 years later, Netherlands will be facing either Germany or Spain in the Finals of World Cup 2010. I really hope Germany win this match against Spain, so that they will face Netherlands in the Finals - the Oranje can finally take revenge then. Match has just started, so I will stop here.

One last point before I start watching this semi-finals (which I predict is going to be boring). Did you know that the 1990 World Cup where “To be number 1” was sang, was considered to be one of the most boring World Cups ever? It had the lowest goals scored so far, because most of the teams were playing defensively and passing back to their goal-keeper to waste time. Because of this FIFA introduced the “back-pass” rule in 1992, hence disallowing goal-keepers from catching the ball if his own team-mate had passed the ball to him. That definitely made the game more interesting and faster.

Here, enjoy one more version of this Italia '90 World Cup official song. This was performed LIVE during the opening ceremony of the 1990 World Cup twenty years ago (so don't laugh at their clothes). Cheers.