Soccer has very ancient roots, but the modern game is much more recent.

Quick scoop: when did soccer start?

  • Earliest “soccer‑like” games:
    • Ancient China’s game Cuju/Tsu Chu was played during the Han Dynasty, roughly 206 BCE–220 CE, and involved kicking a ball through an opening in a net.
* Similar ball‑kicking games also existed in ancient Greece and Rome.
  • Medieval and early English football:
    • By around the 12th century, rough, chaotic “mob football” was played in English towns and villages, often with huge numbers of people and very few rules.
* These games were so violent that English kings tried to ban them in the 1300s and 1400s (for example, under Edward III and James I).
  • Birth of modern soccer (association football):
    • The real turning point came in October 1863 in London, when clubs met at Freemasons’ Tavern to create a standard rulebook and founded The Football Association (FA).
* At this point, the game split from rugby, and rules like not carrying the ball by hand and standardizing ball size and play were formalized, which is why many historians say **modern soccer “started” in 1863**.

So, if your question is “when did soccer start?” in a strict modern sense, most historians point to 1863 in England as the start of association football, even though ancestors of the game go back over 2,000 years.

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