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It's an age old sport that almost 240 million people play around the planet. Indeed, most would argue it's probably the oldest and hottest sport in the world being played today. Soccer has captured the hearts of millions around the globe.

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 our ancestors in those days, doesn't resemble 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 nearly 2,000 years ago

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

England could 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 a complicated and intricate history the leads the question as to who really invented the sport up for debate which is much.

The initial appearance of soccer as a sport was in China. Based on the International Federation Football Association or even FIFA, the Chinese had invented a competitive game known as cuju that resembled our modern 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 was not until the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD) that any official rules happened to be 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 even phaininda, these Greek ball games happened to be played with the hands and had enhanced level of violence.

Actually, many say these games resembled rugby, wrestling and volleyball 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.