Tracing the Roots: A Detailed Exploration of Where Soccer Began

The exploration of soccer's origins is a topic that has fascinated historians, fans and scholars for centuries. It's a fascinating journey that takes us back several millennia, tracing the game's roots to ancient times. To fully appreciate the beautiful game as we know it today, it's essential to delve into the past and uncover how soccer has evolved over time.

Soccer, or football as known in most parts of the world, traces its most distant origins back to ancient civilizations. Many assume that modern soccer originated in England in the mid-19th century, but several games that resemble soccer have been played all around the world for centuries.

In China, during the second and third centuries BC, a game called Tsu Chu, or "kick ball," was a popular activity. Players made use of a leather ball filled with feathers and hair and competed in a field marked by two upright posts. The aim was to kick the ball through a net strung between these posts. A crucial distinction with soccer was that no hands were allowed to be used during the gameplay.

Greece, known for founding many sports traditions, also contributed to soccer's history. A popular game during ancient times was Episkyros, which incorporated both feet and hands in moving the ball. It was often played in phalanx formations, but its rules were quite different from today's soccer. Nevertheless, the use of a spherical ball and the objective of maneuvering it past opponents across a marked field show some similarities.

Moving on to Italy, the ancient Romans played a game named Harpastum. It was a game aimed at both nursing physical agility and teaching military tactics. Interestingly, the ball used in Harpastum was a lot smaller than today’s soccer ball. On streets, plazas, or military camps, Romans played this game, which some consider a distant relative of football.

Turn the pages of history to Native American culture, and we find a game called Pasuckuakohowog, meaning "they gather to play ball with the foot." It's recorded being played as far back as the 1600s on fields that could extend up to a mile and involved as many as 1000 players at a time. The competitive spirit, kicking, and strategy display recognizable traces of modern soccer.

Across the globe in Japan, a game called Kemari involved players standing in a circle and passing a ball using their feet, attempting to keep it off the ground.

The Medieval Era marked the advent of many games that were reminiscent of the modern-day soccer, but football during that time was quite fierce and violent in nature. These early versions of the game were a far cry from today's organized sport and often used as a show of strength among the various town and village clans across Europe— a characteristic trait of the Medieval society.

In England, such village games would typically occur on public festivals, where the play would break out and the object of the game was to move the ball to a certain predetermined point. There were few rules and many times games resulted in injuries, even deaths. In fact, the game was so violent that it was repeatedly banned by several monarchs over the centuries, including Kings Edward II and Edward III.

Historians credit the Italians for introducing a more formal structure to football. In 16th century Florence, a game called 'Calcio' was developed which had teams of 27+ players trying to strike a ball into an opponent’s net. This game was slightly more organized and less brutal, having specific rules about tackling and handling the ball.

The modern form of soccer started taking shape during the mid-19th century in England. During this time, different forms of football were played in schools and universities. However, it was the efforts of Ebenezer Cobb Morley, often referred to as the father of football, that truly changed the game. Morley was instrumental in establishing standardized rules for soccer. In 1863, with the formation of the first football association in England, the game became more structured and its popularity gradually started spreading across the globe.

The distinct forms of soccer we know today continued to evolve throughout the 19th and into the 20th century. The game split into two camps: rugby football (what we now know as rugby) and association football (which became soccer). This split was largely driven by whether or not to allow players to use their hands.

The establishment of FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) in 1904 a milestone in the history of soccer. It became the international governing body for soccer and oversees major international tournaments, their most prestigious being the World Cup, which commenced in 1930.

Today, soccer remains one of the most popular sports globally, with millions playing and watching the game.