Soccer is the world's most popular sport. But who invented it? The Brits formalized the game known globally as football—but its roots date back to ancient China and Mesoamerica.

Can the game be traced back to ancient China? What are the links with Mesoamerica? And why do we call it soccer instead of football?

At the Al Bidda Park in Doha, Qatar, some Chinese people wearing traditional Chinese clothing demonstrate the tricks and skills of the ancient sport known as cuju, the prototype of modern football ...

ARCHAEOLOGISTS exploring an ancient cemetery in China have uncovered 3,000-year-old leather balls, suggesting ball games were played on the Eurasian continent hundreds of years earlier than thought.

Former Ball State football player Wendell Brown received a four-year prison sentence from a Chinese court late Wednesday night. Brown, who was in China to teach football, had a bottle thrown at ...

Ancient times Some have claimed that football dates back to as far as 2500 B.C. with the Greeks, Egyptians, Chinese and the Romans all having played a game involving a ball and feet.

Above: Chinese football players compete. A skillful cuju player could be highly valued by emperors in ancient China. Photos Provided to China Daily ...