Soccer, The Beautiful Game

Football, soccer, The Beautiful Game, The World Game, whatever you want to call it is an international game for boys, girls, men, and women to enjoy, but it hasn't always been that way. So how did soccer transform through history?

Carli Lloyd for the US Women's team

Soccer was first seen in China back in 206 BC as 蹴鞠 (Cùjū) it was a game boys played for fun and the goal was to hit a ball between two goalposts and under the crossbar into the net. You could use any part of your body except your hands. It was quite similar to modern day soccer but it was technically an unofficial sport.

Fast forward a couple centuries and we get to the 1848 where the Cambridge Rules written at Trinity University and soccer is becoming more organized. Now clubs unconnected to schools are starting to be created, and also there were starting to be leagues like the Sheffield FA.

At this point soccer is still only a men's sport and women haven't been given they're own league yet but in 1894 an activist by the name of Nettie Honeyball create the British Ladies' Football Club. Despite the good times of women's soccer they faced the ultimate struggle, England's Football Association voted to ban women's professional football to play on standard football pitches. The ban was only officially lifted in 1969. The Women's World Cup was first inaugurated in 1991 and has been held every four years ever since.

Soccer, Football, The Beautiful Game, The World Game, whatever you want to call it, has had some rough times but all in all it's a sport that brings people together around the world. It will always have it's place in history no matter how your history books say it.