Getting your questions ready
Getting your questions ready
Beat the crowd
10 questions No timer
50 free 90s Football trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
The 1990s gave football its modern shape. The Champions League replaced the European Cup, the Premier League broke away with satellite money, a Belgian midfielder's court case rewrote the transfer market, and three World Cups ran from Rome to Pasadena to Paris. This quiz covers the whole decade and the whole world: the finals and shootouts, the mascots and the kits, the records and the riots, the managers who changed jobs and the players who changed clubs for fees that seemed absurd at the time. Each answer comes with a short explanation, so a miss still teaches you something. It suits anyone who grew up with nineties football, pub-quiz setters hunting for a themed round, and younger fans who keep hearing about the decade and want to know what the fuss was about.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which singer missed a staged penalty at the USA 94 opening ceremony, yet the goal still split on cue?
Diana Ross
Diana Ross sent the ball wide from a few yards while lip-syncing 'I'm Coming Out' at Soldier Field in Chicago. The rigged goal broke apart as planned, opening a tournament that ended with another famous miss.
Q 02What did seagulls following the trawler expect, in Eric Cantona's cryptic 1995 press-conference riddle?
Sardines
Sardines were the punchline of a line that baffled the press room: seagulls follow the trawler because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea. He said it after his court hearing for kicking a fan, then walked out.
Q 03Which Puccini aria, in Luciano Pavarotti's recording, became the BBC's theme for Italia 90 and a UK number two?
Nessun dorma
Nessun dorma turned a 1972 Pavarotti recording of Turandot's big tenor aria into a pop hit, climbing to number two on the UK singles chart. Its closing 'Vincerò' became the sound of an English football summer.
Q 04Footix, the France 98 mascot, was which animal, chosen because it is one of France's national symbols?
A cockerel
A cockerel was the choice because the Gallic rooster has stood for France since the Revolution. Footix wore a blue body with a red comb and yellow beak, echoing the host's flag.
Q 05Lord Justice Taylor's 1990 report into the Hillsborough disaster required top-division English grounds to become what?
All-seater
All-seater grounds were the report's headline demand, and league rules gave the top two divisions until August 1994 to comply. The terraces went, and so did the perimeter fences that had penned fans in.
Q 06Which Brazilian forward marked a USA 94 quarter-final goal by rocking an imaginary baby, days after his son's birth?
Bebeto
Bebeto's cradle-rocking against the Netherlands in Dallas celebrated the birth of his son Mattheus, and two teammates ran over to rock along. The pose became one of football's most copied celebrations.
Q 07Which band recorded 'Three Lions' with comedians David Baddiel and Frank Skinner for England's Euro 96 campaign?
Lightning Seeds
Lightning Seeds frontman Ian Broudie wrote the music, and 'Football's Coming Home' went to number one in the UK. A 1998 version with new lyrics topped the chart again.
Q 08Paul Gascoigne's 'dentist's chair' celebration at Euro 96 followed his flick-and-volley goal against which team?
Scotland
Scotland were the victims at Wembley: Gascoigne flicked the ball over Colin Hendry and volleyed past Andy Goram. Teammates then squirted Lucozade into his mouth, mocking a pre-tournament drinking photo.
Q 09Which Mexico goalkeeper of the 1990s designed his own garish kits and sometimes played as a striker?
Jorge Campos
Jorge Campos's self-designed fluorescent shirts lit up USA 94, and his versatility let him swap the gloves for a striker's role at UNAM Pumas. He won the 1996 Gold Cup with Mexico.
Q 10Which African nation lost most of its national squad when a military plane crashed off Gabon in April 1993?
Zambia
Zambia's team was flying to a World Cup qualifier in Senegal when the Air Force Buffalo went into the Atlantic after leaving Libreville, killing all 30 aboard. A rebuilt side still reached the 1994 Africa Cup of Nations final.
Q 11Whose saved penalty in the Euro 96 semi-final shootout against Germany sent hosts England out at Wembley?
Gareth Southgate
Gareth Southgate's kick was saved and Andreas Möller converted the next one to put Germany through. He later sent himself up in a Pizza Hut advert alongside Stuart Pearce and Chris Waddle, who had missed at Italia 90.
Q 12Which West Germany player scored the 85th-minute penalty that decided the 1990 World Cup final against Argentina?
Andreas Brehme
Andreas Brehme struck it low to the keeper's right after Rudi Völler was fouled, giving Franz Beckenbauer's side a 1-0 win in Rome. The tournament averaged just 2.21 goals a game, still the lowest in World Cup history.
Q 13Which France defender scored the first golden goal in World Cup history, against Paraguay in the 1998 round of 16?
Q 21Holders Germany were knocked out of USA 94 in the quarter-finals by a Yordan Letchkov winner for which nation?
Bulgaria
Bulgaria won 2-1 at Giants Stadium in a tournament where they had only just recorded their first ever World Cup finals victory. They went on to lose the semi-final to Italy.
Q 22Saeed Al-Owairan's solo goal against Belgium at USA 94 sent which nation into the knockout rounds for the first time?
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia's win at RFK Stadium in Washington put them into the last 16, and the goal was later voted sixth in FIFA's Goal of the Century poll. Al-Owairan beat four defenders on a run from inside his own half.
Q 23Which Brazilian striker won the Golden Ball at USA 94 and was named FIFA World Player of the Year that year?
Romário
Laurent Blanc
Laurent Blanc's extra-time winner in Lens ended a goalless tie, yet he missed the final after being sent off for slapping Slaven Bilić in the semi-final. Bilić's theatrical fall is still resented in France.
Q 14Which France player scored both goals in the 1998 World Cup semi-final against Croatia, his only two in 142 caps?
Lilian Thuram
Lilian Thuram turned a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 win within 23 minutes and never scored for France again. His 142 caps stood as the national record until Hugo Lloris passed it in 2022.
Q 15Which Croatia player won the 1998 World Cup Golden Boot with six goals?
Davor Šuker
Davor Šuker outscored Ronaldo and Batistuta, and his left foot earned him second place behind Zidane in that December's Ballon d'Or. Croatia's bronze came in their first World Cup as an independent nation.
Q 16Which nation's players handed white roses to their American opponents before a 2-1 win in Lyon at France 98?
Iran
Iran's first World Cup victory came in what the US federation's president had called 'the mother of all games', with Hamid Estili and Mehdi Mahdavikia scoring. The roses were a peace gesture between two estranged governments.
Q 17Which African nation beat Argentina 3-2 in the final to win men's football gold at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics?
Nigeria
Nigeria's 'Dream Team' of Kanu, Okocha and Amunike came from behind in the final, having beaten Brazil 4-3 in the semi-final. It was the first Olympic football gold for an African country.
Q 18Which nation, back from a decades-long apartheid ban, won the 1996 African Nations Cup as replacement hosts?
South Africa
South Africa took over from original hosts Kenya and beat Tunisia 2-0 in the Johannesburg final, with Nelson Mandela in a Bafana Bafana shirt presenting the trophy. It was the country's first continental title.
Q 19Which nation's stoppage-time equaliser in Doha in October 1993 cost Japan their first World Cup place?
Iraq
Iraq's Jaffar Omran scored from a corner in stoppage time to make it 2-2, and South Korea went to USA 94 on goal difference instead. Japan finally reached a World Cup at France 98.
Q 20Which coach took a different nation to each of five consecutive World Cups from 1986 to 2002?
Bora Milutinović
Bora Milutinović's run began with Mexico in 1986 and ended with China in 2002, taking in three more teams along the way. He got four of the five out of the group stage.
Romário scored five goals at the tournament, including the semi-final winner against Sweden, after a 30-goal league season at Barcelona. He later claimed a 1,000th career goal in 2007.
Q 24Which Argentina defender became the first player sent off in a World Cup final, for a studs-up tackle in Rome in 1990?
Pedro Monzón
Pedro Monzón had been on the pitch barely 20 minutes when he caught Jürgen Klinsmann, and Gustavo Dezotti followed him off late on. Argentina finished with nine men and lost 1-0.
Q 25Which domed venue staged the first World Cup matches played indoors, on grass grown specially for USA 94?
Pontiac Silverdome
The Pontiac Silverdome hosted four group games, including a USA-Switzerland draw, on natural turf that Michigan State University grew in trays and moved inside. No World Cup game had been played under a roof before.
Q 26Which fabric did Adidas imitate on the star-spangled away shirt the USA wore at the 1994 World Cup?
Denim
Denim-look polyester with scattered white stars gave the host nation a shirt that became a cult classic. Adidas reissued it in 2026 without the crest, since Nike now makes the US kit.
Q 27Which nation won the first women's Olympic football tournament, beating China 2-1 in Athens, Georgia, in 1996?
United States
The United States won gold in front of more than 76,000 at Sanford Stadium, the first of five Olympic titles for the US women. NBC did not even show the final live.
Q 28Which Scandinavian nation beat Germany in the 1995 Women's World Cup final with two goals in four minutes?
Norway
Norway's Hege Riise and Marianne Pettersen struck in Solna to win 2-0, four years after losing the first final to the USA. Striker Ann Kristin Aarønes was the tournament's top scorer with six goals.
Q 29Which Danish goalkeeper's shootout save against the Netherlands sent late entrants Denmark into the Euro 92 final?
Peter Schmeichel
Peter Schmeichel kept out Marco van Basten's kick, the second of the Dutch five, for a 5-4 shootout win, and Denmark then beat Germany 2-0 in Gothenburg. They had been called up only after Yugoslavia's expulsion.
Q 30Which Czech winger's lob over Vítor Baía beat Portugal at Euro 96 and earned a move to Manchester United?
Karel Poborský
Karel Poborský scooped the ball over the advancing keeper for the quarter-final's only goal, then joined United for £3.5 million that June. He soon lost his place to David Beckham.