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Soccer, or football, ranks as the world’s favorite sport – hands down. Soccer claims around 3 billion fans – nearly half the world’s population! And according to FIFA’s count in 2006, 265 million people play this game. That’s 4 percent of the global population!

The game’s roots

  Determining soccer’s original birthplace isn’t easy. Many ancient peoples played early forms of this modern game. Cu ju (蹴鞠), a ball-kicking game in ancient China, was reported as early as 2,500 B.C. Around the same time, Greeks were also playing a similar ball game without using their hands.