Why Does America Call it Soccer?

Nobody anywhere calls the sport "soccer". But here we are, the only ones in South Africa that do not call it some variation on foot and ball. And of course, if you've pondered this before, you are probably equally befuddled that the game we call football is not even played with one's foot in the first place. American football ought to be called handball...

Thankfully, there is actually quite a redeeming twist to this story. Soccer came from the British. In the 1860s, the elite British formed leagues to play Association Football. To shorten the title, the language evolved into "Asoccer" and eventually "soccer". It was NOT an American term, at all!

When the sport reached US soil in the 1880s, it was commonly referred to by the formal Association Football.

Find out the rest of the story on SoccerLens.com