The name “soccer” isn’t an American invention. It originated in England, where in 1863 the Football Association formed to promote and standardize the game we play with our feet today. That form of the sport became known as “association football or “soccer” as recently as 40 years ago.
Now British school boys of the day liked to nickname everything, which is still somewhat common. They also liked to add the ending “er” to these nicknames. Thus Rugby was, at that time, popularly called “Rugger”. Association football was then much better known as “Assoccer”, which quickly just became “Soccer” and sometimes “Soccer Football”.
The inventor of the nickname is said to be Charles Wredford Brown, who was an Oxford student around the time of Association Football’s inception. Legend has it, in 1863 shortly after the creation of Association Football, Wredford-Brown had some friends who asked him if he’d come play a game of “Rugger”, to which he replied he preferred “Soccer”. The name caught on from there.
Picture Credit : Google
