Football facts for kids

This page is about the word "football". For the sport most often called "football", see Association football.

Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are two of the most widely-known football players in the world

Diego Maradona in a match against Italy

Football is a word which could mean one of several sports. The best-known type of football is association football. This is called "soccer" in North America, South Africa, and Australia to avoid confusion with other types of football that are commonly played there.

The name football comes from the two words 'foot' and 'ball'. It is named football because the players of the game walk and often run (on their feet) while playing, as opposed to (for example) polo where the players ride horses. Football is played using a ball, also called a 'football', that is usually shaped like a sphere or an ellipsoid. The ball is often kicked with the foot, but depending on the game, it can also be hit using other parts of the body (in association football) and handling the ball is a part of some other sports known as 'football'.

Some elements of football have been seen in many countries, dating back to the second and third century AD in China. The modern games of both rugby football and association football comes from 19th-century England. Kicking a ball goes back to the Middle Ages. Association football spread to many other parts of Europe, and was brought to the rest of the world with colonization. Today, it is the most popular sport in the world and many people watch it on television, especially the FIFA World Cup that happens every four years.

Every year there is a Football Club Competition called as Champions League. All the qualified big teams take part. At the end, we have one winner who takes the prestigious UEFA trophy. All big players play for their own teams. Some big players who take part every year are Mbappe, Ronaldo, Messi, Dybala, Neymar and many more

Types of football

A game of American (gridiron) football. Canadian football is very similar.

Association football (soccer)
American football
- Rugby league football
- Rugby union football
Gridiron football
- College football
- Touch rugby - Called "touch football" in Australia.
- Canadian football
Gaelic football
Australian Rules Football

The Simple English Wiktionary has a definition for: football.

Images for kids

A painting depicting Emperor Taizu of Song playing cuju (i.e. Chinese football) with his prime minister Zhao Pu (趙普) and other ministers, by the Yuan dynasty artist Qian Xuan (1235–1305)
An ancient Roman tombstone of a boy with a Harpastum ball from Tilurium (modern Sinj, Croatia)
An illustration of so-called "mob football"
"Football" in France, circa 1750
An illustration of the Calcio Fiorentino field and starting positions, from a 1688 book by Pietro di Lorenzo Bini
Although the Rugby School (pictured) became famous due to a version that rugby football was invented there in 1823, most sports historians refuse this version stating it is apocryphal
A Football Game (1839) by British painter Thomas Webster
Football match in the 1846 Shrove Tuesday in Kingston upon Thames, England
Richard Lindon (seen in 1880) is believed to have invented the first footballs with rubber bladders
Tom Wills, widely regarded as the father of Australian football
Wood engraving of an Australian rules football match at the Richmond Paddock, Melbourne, 1866
The Last Scrimmage by Edwin Buckman, depicting a rugby scrum in 1871
The "Tigers" of Hamilton, Ontario, circa 1906. Founded 1869 as the Hamilton Foot Ball Club, they eventually merged with the Hamilton Flying Wildcats to form the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, a team still active in the Canadian Football League.
Rutgers University (here pictured in 1882) played the first inter-collegiate football game v Princeton in 1869
The Harvard v McGill game in 1874. It is considered the first rugby football game played in the US
The All-Ireland Football Final in Croke Park, 2004
Heading from The Sportsman (London) front page of 25 November 1910, illustrating the continued use of the word "football" to encompass both association football and rugby
An indoor soccer game at an open-air venue in Mexico. The referee has just awarded the red team a free kick.
Harrow football players after a game at Harrow School (circa 2005).
A Song dynasty painting by Su Hanchen (c. 1130-1160), depicting Chinese children playing cuju
Paint of a Mesoamerican ballgame player of the Tepantitla murals in Teotihuacan
A group of indigenous people playing a ball game in French Guiana
An illustration from the 1850s of indigenous Australians playing marn grook
A revived version of kemari being played at the Tanzan Shrine, Japan, 2006