Champions of Men's Soccer

by Ann Killion

Overview

Just in time for the World Cup! From Pele to Messi to Tim Howard, here is the ultimate guide to Men's Soccer for young sports fans from an award-winning sports journalist.

From fields all across the United States to the streets of South America to pitches in Europe and Asia, the global passion and love for soccer knows no borders. It is simply the most popular sport in the world. Giants of the game like Cristiano Ronaldo, Tim Howard, and Lionel Messi have become international celebrities and role models to young fans across the globe. And as soccer continues to expand in America, with the growth of leagues like Major League Soccer and the rise in popularity of the US Men's Olympic team, there's no doubt that it's the fastest-growing sport in the United States.

Featuring Top Ten Lists and stunning photos of history-making moments, this comprehensive men's pro soccer collection catalogs the greatest international players such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, and Pelé; the greatest Americans, including Tim Howard, Landon Donovan, and Clint Dempsey; the future class of superstars; and the most thrilling World Cup and Olympic matches. Here is the ultimate guide to men's soccer for young sports fans.

Praise for Champions of Men's Soccer:

"Soccer fans will enjoy this book." —VOYA

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780399548987
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	05/01/2018
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Ann Killion has covered American sports for more than a quarter century. An award-winning columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, she has covered several World Cups and pivotal moments in the rise of both American men's and women's soccer. She was named the 2014 California Sportswriter of the Year. She is a New York Times bestselling author, having co-written Solo: A Memoir of Hope with soccer star Hope Solo. She also co-authored Throw Like a Girl with softball great Jennie Finch. She is also the author of Champions of Women's Soccer. She has two children and lives in Mill Valley California.

Read an Excerpt

Pregame

People like to debate all sorts of things about sports. Who’s the best player? What’s the hardest game to master? But there’s no debate about this:

The most popular sport in the world is soccer.

Or as most of the rest of the world calls it, “football.”

You might not believe that fact if you live in the United States. From watching TV or listening to local fans talk about their favorite sports, you would think (American) football or basketball is the most popular sport in the universe.

But every four years, when the World Cup is played, Americans get a dose of reality. And they realize that, nope, soccer is by far the sport that the rest of the world loves best. Unfortunately for the United States, in 2018 they won’t attend the World Cup party.

To put the sport’s fan base in perspective, the final of the 2014 World Cup between Germany and Argentina was watched by an estimated one billion people. That’s one seventh of the world’s population. In contrast, the audience for Super Bowl LI in February 2017 between New England and Atlanta was 111 million.

Not even close.

According to FIFA, the international governing body of the sport, about 265 million people worldwide play organized soccer in some form or another. That’s about 4 percent of the world’s entire population.

Soccer is played in virtually every corner of the planet, on every continent (even Antarctica!), among people of every economic group and ethnicity.

The primary reason for soccer’s immense popularity is its simplicity. It can be played anywhere: on a field, in a street, on a beach. It requires virtually no equipment, save for a ball. And when even a ball isn’t available or affordable, one can be made of balled up rags—as the famous Pelé played with as a child—or other material. Two rocks, or shoes, or lines in the dirt can make up the goal. Kids play barefoot or in sneakers if they don’t have cleats. In fact, all you really need to play is passion, determination, and some odds and ends.

Some people complain about soccer’s low scores. But the fact that a game is often won by just one goal highlights the competitive tension and also makes for many upsets, one of the most compelling things about any sport.

Another reason for soccer’s popularity is the fact that it’s been around for centuries, perhaps millennia. There is evidence that some form of the sport was played as long as three thousand years ago. There was an early form of the game called cuju in China in the third century BC. Precursors of the game were played in ancient Greece and ancient Rome. Many people believe the Romans spread a form of the game throughout Europe, with the expansion of the Roman Empire, including to England. There are even stories of early versions of the game played by mobs of people, which quickly transformed into riots, therefore leading the game to be outlawed.

Fast forward to England in the nineteenth century. The game was played at schools, including Rugby School and Eton College, which played two different versions, one where the ball could be picked up (at Rugby) and one where it was played with only the feet (at Eton). One became the game of rugby and the other became football, or soccer.

As the years went on and soccer grew in popularity, the sport’s guidelines became more official. In 1848, players at Cambridge drew up a set of formal rules for the game. The first international game was played in 1872, between England and Scotland. England went on to export the game to its colonies throughout the British Empire.

The first official soccer organization, the FA (Football Association), was formed at the Freemasons’ Tavern in London in 1863 with twelve football clubs. Then in 1904, FIFA—the Fédération Internationale de Football Association—was founded; the original members were Belgium, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. England joined a year later. Within three decades, FIFA had grown its membership to forty-one nations.

The organized game spread throughout the world, carried across oceans by Europeans to countries where they had a presence, through colonization or business.
The most notable exception was North America. The United States (and Canada) seemed impervious to the charms of organized soccer for a century. Despite America’s English roots and even though the United States is a nation built on immigrants, soccer took a long time to catch on.

Why?

It’s difficult to say for sure, but we can make a few educated guesses. First, by the time soccer was expanding across the world, there were already two very popular sports in the United States: baseball and (American) football. Baseball was the country’s first professional sport. Football, which was an evolution of rugby, was established through the growing collegiate system. Some historians believe there just wasn’t enough room for another major sport in America, especially a hundred years ago when people had less leisure time to spend either playing or watching sports.

In addition, the United States has always valued being unique and different from European countries. Despite America’s English roots, our country’s story is that we defeated the English in the American Revolution. So it’s not surprising that our country might reject a sport so very British at its core, when America had its own unique sports to play.

America even has its own name for the game. Though the term soccer originated in England—as a shortened version of association football to distinguish it from rugby football—it only later became popularized in the United States. The name soccer kept the sport separate from American football, which became just football in America. The term soccer is also used in other countries that have another prevalent form of football, such as Australia.

Even though it wasn’t the most important sport like it was in other countries, soccer still gained a foothold in the United States. As different waves of immigrants arrived during the twentieth century, they brought the game they loved with them and taught it to their children. Youth soccer—among both boys and girls—grew quickly during the second half of the twentieth century.

And when the United States hosted the 1994 World Cup—a strategic move by FIFA to grow the game in such a large and rich country—soccer really began to take off. America was about a century behind the rest of the world, but by the late twentieth century there was room in the United States for interest in a variety of sports.

Now, after decades of effort, the world’s most popular sport is also one of the most popular sports in America. Our national teams are hugely popular, the World Cup gets big television ratings, there is an established professional league in Major League Soccer, and, thanks to cable television and live streaming, fans have access to games from the best leagues around the world. Though there is concern that missing the World Cup in 2018 will set the sport back in the United States, it is still here to stay.

In this book, we will look at what makes men’s soccer the most popular and thrilling sport in the world (there’s also a Champions of Women’s Soccer book specifically about the women’s game).

From the near-mythological players of the past to the greats of today, we will look at the most important superstars in the world and the most important American players—not necessarily the best players but the ones who have had a key impact on the game. We will journey back in time to the most important moments in the history of the game and also explore some of the top leagues in the world. Finally, we will look to the future and explore some of the young players who could emerge as the next generation of stars.

Maybe you won’t agree with all my picks—maybe you have your own lists. But that’s one of the most fun things about sports: arguing about who is the best. As we said at the start, everyone has an opinion and we could debate about sports until the end of time.

But one thing’s for sure: the world’s most popular sport is going to be around a long time.

Table of Contents

Pregame ix

Introduction

First Half 9

The International Strating 11

Pelé

Lionel Messi

Diego Maradona

Cristiano Ronaldo

Franz Beckenbauer

Xavi

Johan Cruyff

Zinedine Zidane

Ronaldo

Paolo Maldini

Gianluigi Buffon

Halftime 101

Leagues Around the World

Second Half 117

The American Starting 11

Landon Donovan

Tim Howard

Joe Gaetjens

Claudio Reyna

Eric Wynalda

Clint Dempsey

Michael Bradley

Jozy Altidore

Brad Friedel

Paul Caligiuri

Christian Pulisic

Extra Time 215

World Cup Highlights

Penalty Kicks 251

The Next Generation of Superstars

Photos 269

Index 277

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Champions of Men's Soccer:

"Soccer fans will enjoy this book." —VOYA

From the Publisher