Soccer and Its Greatest Players

Soccer and Its Greatest Players book cover — CONTENTS INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1 THE GAME OF SocCER 10 CHAPTER 2 HisTORY AND ORGANIZATION OF SoccER 20 Y CHAPTER 3 SoCCER LEGENDs 29 CHAPTER 4 CURRENT STARS 54 ostenk 84 85 CONCLUSION GLOSSARY For MORE INFORMATION BIBLIOGRAPHY 88 92 93 INDEX

Soccer and Its Greatest Players — page 1 — ISTRODUCTION W That s in a name When it comes to the world s most popular team sport the designation you use generally signifies where you come from Americans refer to it as soccer those in Spanish speaking countries say fitbol and much of the rest of the English speaking world calls it football Technically the official title is association football Clearly football fútbol and association football are all of a linguistic piece So where does the words soc cer come from It actually originated more than one hundred years ago in England as a slang abbreviation based on the soc in asso ciation In Australia the wordplay game has been taken one step further as the national team there is nicknamed the Socceroos a melding of soccer and kangaroo Because soccer is the world's most popular sport it follows then that the game s premier

Soccer and Its Greatest Players — page 2 — INTRODUCTION international tournament the World Cup played every four years would be the world's most popular sporting event and indeed it is Soccer also has the distinction of being the first team sport to have been included in the Olympics as an official event an honor it gained in 1900 Readers of this book will learn of soccer's earliest roots in China Greece and North America and of the modern game s emer gence in 19th century England But it was a group of European countries other than Great Britain that first attempted to bring international order to the game when at the turn of the 20th century the Fédération Internationale de Football Association FIFA was formed Of course rules evolve and FIFA as a governing body respon sive to hundreds of national associations worldwide occasionally releases modifica tions or clarifications of those rules FIFA does so in concert with the International Football Association Board

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