We explain everything about the history of football, its origins and variations in various cultures. Also, the best players in history.
What is the history of football like?
The football It's one of the sports most popular in the world. It is practiced in practically all the countries of the world, which meet every four years to play the world cup, and maintain their different regular leagues throughout the year.
It is estimated that soccer has around 250 million players worldwide, and that it mobilizes around 1.8 billion interested parties and fans around the globe. It is one of the Olympic sports, and its international leadership is exercised by the International Federation of Football Associations (or FIFA, for its acronym in French).
The ancient origins of this sport are uncertain, but in the 3rd century BC. A similar sport was practiced in China. In this remote history of soccer, Han Dynasty soldiers practiced an exercise called ts’uh Kúh (also called luju or tsu chu), which consisted of throwing a ball with the feet towards a small net. In some variants, the player had to do it while defending himself from the physical attack of his rivals.
Centuries later there were practices more similar to modern football, such as the kemari Japanese, of a more ceremonial type, in which a ball had to be kept in the air as long as possible, passing it between players without using the hands.
There were also western variants, such as the episkyros greek and the haspastrum Roman, of which there is very little information. It is also known today that the ancient peoples Mesoamerican they practiced something similar called pok ta pok, about 3,000 years ago, and that the North American aborigines did the same, although they called it pasuckuakohowog.
However, it is unlikely that these ancient sports had a direct influence on modern football. The closest thing in the history European are the "ball games" played by young British and French (the latter under the name of soule). In the carnivals it was common its practice in the British Isles, occasions in which an entire town could participate.
Italians had the clearest antecedent of all, the calcium Florentine, less violent than its British variants and more organized than the French, consisting of two teams of 27 players each. It was practiced beginning in the 16th century, and in 1580 Giovanni Bardi introduced the first formal set of rules.
Properly said, the modern history of football begins in Great Britain in the 19th century, when the first unifying rules of carnival football emerged, beginning to be practiced in collegiate associations outside of the holiday season. In fact, in 1863 the Cambridge college rules of the game were the basis of the current code of rules, also taking rules from the mode of play of Sheffield.
Thus, with a regulation of 13 rules just was modern football promoted by the newly created Football Association (FA). From there also came, although some years later, the term soccer, derived from "association”And the suffix –Er, and the first league competition in history also emerged, the Football League in 1888. Its purpose was to raise enough funds to be able to professionalize FA players.
Towards the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, English football had spread throughout Europe and then to others continents, partly thanks to the system colonial European, and to the commercial exchange with the recent American republics.
The first American soccer league was Argentina, founded in 1891, and the first international match outside of Europe was played between Argentina and Uruguay in 1901. On the other hand, the economic conditions in Asia they prevented football from leaving the purely university sphere until well into the 80s of the 20th century.
In 1904, in Paris, the Fédération Internationale e Football Association (FIFA) was founded by football representatives from 8 different countries: France, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and Germany. Its objective was to manage European meetings not linked to Great Britain and Ireland, who initially rejected the existence of a world football body.
The first soccer world cup in history was played in 1930, which became the largest soccer event in the entire globe. Then the Intercontinental Cup emerged in 1960, the South American Copa Libertadores and the European Champions League. Women's football emerged professionally after the First World War, when female participation in the society and at work.
Best players in history
According to the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS), recognized by FIFA, the list of the 5 best football players in the world in the 20th century is as follows:
- Pelé (Edson Arantes do Nascimento). Born in Brazil in 1940, the best player of the century according to a vote by FIFA and the best athlete of the 20th century according to the International Olympic Committee, he won the world cup with the Brazilian team in 1958, 1962 and 1970, being the player who more times and younger has obtained it in the history.
- Johan Cruyff. Dutch player born in 1947 and died in 2016, is considered the best player in Europe, received the Ballon d'Or three times (1971, 1973 and 1974), and is considered the best exponent of the so-called “total football” by Rinus Michels. .
- Franz Beckenbauer. Born in 1945 in Germany, this footballer nicknamed "The Kaiser" was captain of his country's team when it won the World Cup in 1974 and 1976, as well as the European Championship in 1972, and was the team's coach when it won the Cup. 1990. In addition, he won the Ballon d'Or in Europe in 1972 and 1976, being remembered as the best player in history in his country.
- Alfredo Di Stefano. Soccer player and Argentine nationalized Spanish coach, born in 1926, was an honorary player of the River Plate, Millonarios and Real Madrid clubs, being the honorary president of the latter from 2000 until his death in 2014. He is considered one of the best players of all times, Real Madrid's top scorer at the time of his retirement, after having played eleven seasons.
- Diego Armando Maradona. Born in Buenos Aires in 1960, “el Diego” is one of the best known, admired and controversial soccer players in history. A midfield player or forward, he was world champion in 1986, runner-up in 1990 and world youth champion in 1979, before being suspended for doping. He was the top scorer in the Argentine league five times, and was later a television host, coach of various teams and the star of fictional films and documentaries.
Obviously in this list, drawn up in 2004, there are no stars of current football of the XXI century such as the Argentine Lionel Messi or the Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo.