I’ve been playing foosball all my life, and it turns out that the real competition, the truly exciting one, isn’t about who manages to score the most goals into the opposing team’s goal. No. It is on the counters rather than the scoreboards that fans of this game, whose invention is often attributed to a Galician, fight for their money. Their challenge centers on who can build the biggest foosball table. big the monstrosity of the world. Although the race is controversial, it is clear who can boast of taking the gold medal in the Guinness World Records: Türkiye.

At least for now.

One pinball to rule them all. Dimensions may vary between models, but traditional foosball tables are generally around four feet. There are smaller and larger ones. The challenge is finding a table similar to one that would break the Guinness record for the “world’s longest foosball table”, which was put together in Istanbul, Turkey, a little less than a year ago.

His table was 151.7 meters, neither more nor less. To get an idea of ​​what this means, it is almost the same height as the Mapfre Tower in Barcelona or the Picasso Tower in Madrid. Its creators needed 130 foosball tables to assemble it.

Where and when? The record was broken less than a year ago, on September 23, 2023, in Istanbul’s Kalamış Atatürk Park overlooking the Marmara Sea.

The record-breaking event, sponsored by Der Bremer and KP Agency and attended by an official referee from the ‘Guinness Book of Records’, was planned as a party with concerts, events and, of course, foosball matches. MedyaTava pointed out that in order to add more color to the day, the foosball statue bearing the signatures of hundreds of people who participated in the record was unveiled.

Takes the title from China. It may sound strange to establish the world’s largest pinball, but Türkiye is not the first country to achieve such a success. In fact, the aim of those who supported this was to snatch the Guinness title from another country, China, which had managed to win it a while ago.

There, in Jiujiang, they had previously installed a massive 137.7-meter foosball table, which, despite its massive size, was 14 meters lower than its Istanbul rival. Even Guinness World Records itself still posts this on its TikTok, Facebook and YouTube channels, as well as

A controversial throne. The truth is that neither one nor the other were the first to wear the pinball crown. Years ago, the Amstel brewery came up with the idea of ​​celebrating the end of the UEFA Champions League with a huge table designed for 22 players. A show of passion. It was not stated exactly how long it was, but it was already presented as the largest foosball table in the world.

…And with a supportive touch. Newer is the 121.4-meter foosball table with a capacity of 424 players, installed in Turin by Marco Berry Onlus Magic For Children to raise funds for a children’s hospital in Somalia. The result is what can be seen in the cover photo that accompanies this article.

This size allowed him to win the controversial Guinness title in 2015; but today its size pales in comparison to China or Türkiye. As the race continues to see who can build the greatest game on the planet, one thing becomes clear: The passion for pinball literally has no limits.

Great table, great games. Not all pinball lovers try to add their names to the history of the game by building huge tables. Others began participating in marathon games in an attempt to win the Guinness record for the largest pinball marathon in history. In this case, the crown will go to four Australians who played a game lasting 61 hours and 17 minutes in Innsbruck, Australia, between 29 August and 1 September 2012.

Image | Marco Berry Onlus

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