Football Football Football : That is what is getting discussed everywhere currently. Everyone has his / her views about the way each country is playing in the ongoing World Cup.

In between all these back to back matches, statistics, discussions, predictions and showing the support for my favourite teams’ : I was stuck with a question.

The question, which I felt was similar in magnitude to which Morocco would have felt when they conceded an own goal against Iran in the dying minutes of their first match, similar to the way Colombia felt when they conceded their first goal against Japan, similar to the way Argentina felt when they lost their match against Croatia, thrown at me was by none other than by my mother.

Very simple question but it hit me like a powerful football shot struck right on my face. It took couple of seconds for me to recover and stand up to answer the question.

So while I was rooting for Hazard, De Brunye and Lukaku & celebrating Belgium’s second goal against Panama, my mother asked me ‘are you going to watch all the World Cup matches ‘ ?

I said ‘Yes, Of Course . It happens once in 4 years and cannot afford to miss it’.

The follow up question was the one which knocked me out. She casually mentioned : ‘you are a crazy football fan, following lot of things happening around football, I want to ask you one question about football’. I was all pumped up to show off my footballing knowledge and told her to ‘shoot’ the question.

She asked me ‘Football originated from which country ? ‘ . The whole enthusiasm to answer the question fizzled off in one single moment. I suddenly started picking my grey hair and tried to recollect the answer for the most simplest question thrown to a football fan. My mind started juggling country names ‘Brazil, Germany, Argentina, Spain’ ? . But I was not sure which one was the right answer. My mother was waiting for the answer while holding the plate of food for me (you guessed it right – how can you leave your couch while watching the match ) . She waited for a minute and silently walked off after winning her World Cup trophy moment.

This question made me look through the internet to find the right answer. I was also expecting google to come out with one of the names I had juggled in my mind. I was pleasantly surprised when I figured out the country from which this beautiful game had originated. The game has it roots from a 200 BC game known as ‘Cuju’ which was played by the ‘Han Dynasty’ of China.

Oh Yes – China is the country from where football had its humble origins. Cuju is recognized by FIFA as the earliest form of Football.

As per Wikipedia :-

“The first mention of cuju in a historical text is in the Warring States era Zhan Guo Ce, in the section describing the state of Qi. It is also described in Sima Qian’s Records of the Grand Historian (under Su Qin’s biography), written during the Han Dynasty.A competitive form of cuju was used as fitness training for military cavaliers, while other forms were played for entertainment in wealthy cities like Linzi.

During the Han Dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD), the popularity of cuju spread from the army to the royal courts and upper classes.It is said that the Han emperor Wu Di enjoyed the sport”

It took centuries to get to the current format, rules, etc.

O jogo bonito : The beautiful game has come a long way from Han dynasty to the current format.

And next time when your mother is planning to ask a question about any sport then Be Prepared 🙂

“Dedicated to all mothers’ who make sure that none of their kids miss the football action “