Tottenham's connections to Columbia, apart from our current defender Davinson Sanchez who has proved so successful in his first season with the club is just one meeting at club level.
As well as a few international meetings.

With this summers competition now underway we take the chance to change pace with some Spurs related trivia surrounding the competition and examine a few more pieces of art inspired by the tournament.

My previous World Cup nostalgic article was well received and I thought that as the World Cup gets underway (Spurs start in two days) you might enjoy a quick backwards glance at some more great pictures from previous competitions as we prepare for the next chapter in the story to be written.
With just a smidgen of trivia.

With the World Cup in Russia this summer Connections takes another look at some of the links between Spurs and that country.  
We returned to Russia in September 2016 when we played CSKA in our Champions League group.  It was the first CL game in their new stadium.

The Gallery where we collect together Spurs related images that are connected by a theme. In this case with the World Cup looming they all find our lads on duty for their countries. Please note, they may not have been with Tottenham at the time of the picture. This however should not distract from your pleasure.

Top - Paul Robinson for England V Paraguay in 2006.

The World Cup in 2014 saw only seven Spurs players participate, slightly down on the previous event four years earlier. This was in part due too no Tottenham men being included in the England squad. The players that did travel represented five different countries equaling  our best ‘international spread’ since 1998.

After the recent overload of figures and statistics in the FiFa Files series we turn our attention back to some of the art work, including some from India that has surrounded the competition with a mix of Spurs related trivia. 

England meet Nigeria for just the third time this week. Tottenham have  a few connections with the country, which date back to 1949 and also include a player touring that country and a legend managing their national side.

Spurs have had one first team player from that country in its history but he was honoured by the Countries President. While one of our English players set an England record against them.

Continuing our look at England qualifying competitions we start with 2014 which started with Defore scoring his 17th goal for England in his 50th appearance in a 5-0 win over Moldova. Jermain made 4 appearances in the group scoring twice more both away to San Marino.  Kyle Walker played five times.

With England qualifying for the World Cup finals this summer we look back at the Spurs contribution and some earlier qualifying competitions. The campaign for 2018 started in September 2016 with a 1-0 win away to Slovakia. Tottenham had four men on the field, Kyle Walker, Danny Rose, Eric Dier, and Harry Kane, these were joined by Dele Alli in the 64th minute.

Steffen first joined us from Borussia Dortmund a few days before Christmas in 1998. In five years at Tottenham the midfielder won the League cup (1999) but never scored a goal in his 131 competitive appearances. 

Admired by the fans for his commitment to the club on the field he has been seen on the terraces with them since his playing days.

A second set of artistic images featuring the World Cup from over the last 88 years along with some morsels of WC trivia, much with a Spurs connection.

We start with this version on a liberty from the US competition '94.
Below the England stamp which had a short run of 'England Winners' added after the final.

The FIFA Files and in the last part of our look at how Tottenham players have performed at previous World Cup final tournaments.

This time we turn our attention to the goal scorers spread across eight countries and the five men who have captained their countries

 A total of twenty five Spurs players have represented 16 countries other than England at the World Cup finals, spread across eight tournaments.
As you would expect the participation of Spurs players has generally increased over the years and the most popular tournament to date is 2010 with eight players, there were only seven in 2014. That last tournament did set the record for the most teams represented with five. 

The Gallery turns its focus on a certain Mr. Harry Kane.
Harry has had another phenomenal season. Which we dealt with in detail separately, (1). 

Here in the Gallery we add to our little tribute to him in an visual format.
One of our own, long may he be so.

We start with this image from 1974. The Brazilians having won the World Cup trophy outright in 1970 a new trophy was introduced for the next tournament as we include some tales and pictures that didn't make the 'Rio' series.

In the next Files we investigate Spurs World Cup landmarks and stats for you to watch out  for during the coming conflict. 

With five men included in this summers England squad we take a look at what milestones and records they might reach with this look back at previous involvement in World Cup Finals.

In which we meet Lewis Holtby. Here having scored his first Spurs goal he celebrated by doing a 'Klinsmann dive.'

As well as discovering the World Cup that never was and some other connections.

In the build up to the World Cup we identify a few  Spurs / World Cup landmarks and statistics for you to keep an eye on during the summer. In the next article we will look at appearances and goals, details at the end of this article, but today we start with the England captaincy (1) and their goal scoring records. There is also two club records on the England scene set since the last in this series.