Over the course of the two readings from this week, I was not really surprised at how much I didn’t know about the spread of Soccer (Football) in the world. I knew that Soccer, or at least the modern form of it, stemmed from Britain, and spread throughout the world from there, but that was about it in regards to that.
Luckily, there were plenty of things about the spread of Soccer that I was not yet aware of. One of these were the many different forms of kicking games that go back centuries. Games like Cuju in China, and the Mesoamerican kicking games, the latter dating back to 1500 BCE. I figured that there had to be much older forms of the game that existed, but I was not aware of how far back they went.
Another thing I was not aware of was how the game of Cricket took off in Latin America before Soccer did. Eventually Soccer would take off in the early 20th century, but its rise during the 19th century stemmed from the success of Cricket at the time. Eventually Cricket would decline, while Soccer would become the game in Latin America.
The final thing that I was not really aware of was how Soccer was another aspect of European colonization of the world. Intending for it to be another way of spreading their culture, and influence, the European powers, like Britain and France, would bring the sport to their colonies and to the rest of the world. I find it really fascinating how, despite it being an attempt to secure their own dominance, it ended up somewhat backfiring on them as a lot of those colonized nations ended up becoming better at the sport than those who originated it. A little bit of karma came around.
The spread of Soccer, as someone who does not really know much about the sport, was a fascinating thing to learn about, and featured a lot of aspects I was not particularly expecting, especially with its expansion being an attempt to spread political power. With it being seen these days as the World’s sport, and being such an important aspect of many nations and cultures, it has certainly come a long way from its origins.
By Tommy Oneto
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