Which country invented soccer? The early days of the sport take us to China, where “Tsu’ Chu” – pronounced tsoo-joo – was coined as a form of kickball, according to FIFA. This happened during the Han Dynasty from 206 BC to 220 AD.

Sources indicate that a kicking game of some kind was played in China as early as the fourth century B.C., although cuju likely became more formalized under the Han dynasty around the second century B.C.