Soccer is the worlds most popular sport and one of the globes best known cultural practices. The pinnacle of the sport worldwide is the FIFA World Cup a competition held every four years which crowns one nation as the world champion in front of huge global television audiences over half of the planets population watched the 2010 FIFA World Cup final between Spain and the Netherlands. From the humble origins of modern soccer in Great Britain in the 19th century world soccer has become today a vast commercialized global industry with huge salaries paid to the biggest stars due to the massive amounts of revenue generated through the sale of television rights ticket sales and sponsorship income. The Historical Dictionary of Soccer presents a comprehensive history of the game through a chronology an introductory essay a bibliography numerous appendixes that list everything from the FIFA World Player of the Year to FIFA World Cup Winners and RunnersUp to the UEFA Champions League Winners and RunnersUp and over 400 crossreferenced dictionary entries on places teams terminology and people including Garrincha Pele Johan Cruyff Diego Maradona Zinedine Zidane and Lionel Messi. This book is an excellent access point for students researchers and anyone wanting to know more about soccer. show more