Association football

![Children playing cuju in Song dynasty China.An episkyros player on an ancient stone carving at the National Archaeological Museum, Athens.[11]](/uploads/202501/25/One_Hundred_Children_in_the_Long_Spring5406.jpg)


Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball. It is played by 250 million players in over 200 nations, making it the world's most popular sport. The game is played on a rectangular field with a goal at each end. The object of the game is to score by getting the ball into the opposing goal.