exactly how many (different) soccer players ever played in the Fifa worldcup
games (1930-2006).

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Clarification of Question by amiteast1-ga on 03 Jul 2006 23:45 PDT

dear researcher - note that I need a number as an answer...

"exactly how many (different) soccer players ever played in the Fifa worldcup
games (1930-2006)."

Only an educated guess can be made. The FIFA World Cup has been held
18 times beginning in 1930 in Uruguay. Of about 32 teams invited, most
from Europe refused to attend due to difficulty and cost of travel.
Thirteen countries, mostly from Central and South America
participated. The average roster size was between 14 and 16 players.
Countries tended to hide reserve players should they be needed. This
practice continued into the 1934 and 1938 World Cups.

FIFA has continued to tighten rules for qualification and roster size
throughout the history of the tournament. By 1934, some countries from
Latin America feeling snubbed in 1930 refused to travel to Europe.
Sixteen countries participated with an average roster size of 20-23.
Again reserve players were standing by if needed. The mostly European
tournament had fewer rounds than the modern version. Through the 1938
World Cup countries occassionally dropped out at the last minute to be
replaced by invitation.

Disagreements between FIFA and the international Olympic movement also
caused confusion and squabbling between countries and continents.
Occasional politics interfered with the WC's of the 1930's as various
dictators tried to alter outcomes.

The 1934 and 1938 WC's had 16 countries and rosters of 20-23 players.

In the modern era, the World Cup has been held every four years since
1950 with standardized qualification and tournament rules. From 1950
to 1978, 16 countries qualified and brought rosters of 23 players. In
1982 FIFA expanded the tournament to 24 countries with rosters of 23
players. In 1998 the current format of 32 teams with 23 players per
roster has been used. Several teams have dominated the WC and have
brought back the same players from one tournament to another.

Hi badger75: thanks for your knowledgable comments on my question - I
definitely learned a lot from it. I hope there would be a way to come
up with the exact number. some must have collected the teams rosters
(by which we can count correctly and prevent double counting players
who participated in more than one game).
I'm curious - what's your estimation of that number? I ended up with
~5600 different player.