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It's an age old sport that nearly 240 million folks play around the planet. In fact, many would argue it's the oldest and hottest sport in the world being played today. Soccer has captured the hearts of millions around the world.

Long known as football all over the world and commonly soccer in America, the sport traces the history of its back thousands of years, but the rudimentary soccer played by the ancestors of ours in those days, doesn't look like the modern sport we play today.

The question of who invented soccer is a complicated one. Although historical records indicate that some type of soccer was played almost 2,000 years ago

in China, Greece, and parts of Central America, there is one country credited with what we identify as soccer today.

England may be the first country to codify and identify soccer as the sport we recognize today.

In fact, the English introduced uniform rules, the penalty kicks in 1891 and other regulations like touching the ball with hands and forbidding the tripping of opponents. Yet soccer has an intricate and complicated history the leads the question as to who actually invented the sport up for debate which is a lot of.

The very first appearance of soccer as a sport was in China. Based on the International Federation Football Association or perhaps FIFA, the Chinese had invented a competitive game known as cuju that resembled our contemporary version of soccer.

The name cuju literally translate into "kick ball," though by most historical accounts the game even contained heavy rugby influences as well. In reality, it wasn't until the Han Dynasty (206 BC 220 AD) that any official rules were established for cuju.

Another version of soccer appeared in the Greek civilization a small number of decades later in 228 AD. Known as episkyros or perhaps phaininda, these Greek ball games have been played with the hands and had enhanced level of violence.

In fact, many say these games resembled volleyball, wrestling, and rugby a lot more than they resembled modern-day soccer. Other games resembling soccer were played in Japan, Korean, and South America, but none are available as close to soccer as we know it.