where was soccer originated

Soccer’s earliest known roots trace back over 2,000 years to ancient China, but the modern game as we know it was developed in England.

Quick Scoop: Where Soccer Originated

• Ancient Chinese soldiers in the Han dynasty played a kickball game called cuju (ts’u-chü) , which FIFA recognizes as the earliest documented ancestor of soccer.

• Similar ball games also existed in ancient Greece and Rome, and in Mesoamerican cultures, where people played ritual ball games with their feet and bodies.

• From the 12th century onward, rough “mob football” was played in English towns and villages, often with few rules and a lot of violence.

• The modern sport of soccer (association football) really took shape in England in the 19th century , with written rules drawn up at Cambridge in 1848 and formal standardization when The Football Association (FA) was founded in 1863.

• Because of those codified rules and organized competition, England is usually credited as the birthplace of modern soccer , even though its deeper origins are shared across several ancient cultures.

Simple takeaway

• If you mean the very first kicking games: ancient China (cuju) gets the historical nod.

• If you mean the modern global sport “soccer/football” with clear rules, referees, and leagues: that was codified in England in the 1800s.

So the honest answer is: soccer didn’t come from just one place, but the modern game was born in England, built on much older ball games from China and other civilizations.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.