History

The name foosball which is the main term for table soccer used in Englisch speaking countries gives already a hint where the game itself was invented. Foosball is directly refering to the German word “Fussball”. Table soccer was indeed invented in Germany in the late 1800 even the French claim ( with fill right) that about the same time an almost identical setup of a game with the name “babyfoot” was invented.

It doesn’t matter who was the first one but the game has its roots for sure in Western Europe. The invention of foosball was more or less a response to the love for the field sport known as soccer. Already from the beginning foosball enjoyed a wide popularity amongst people of all ages.

The game was mainly limited to Europe till the beginning of the 20th century before it was brought to the United States by European immigrants. From there it was slowly spread around the world even it remained more or less unknown outside of Europe for almost 50 years after the invention was made.

The important milestone in table soccer becoming well known worldwide was certainly the design of the first standard tables which Lee Peppard designed and produced in the early 1970s. Foosball became one of the most popular indoor game but lost this position soon after video games and PC games were launched in the end of 1980s.

However, both professional and casual foosball have a faithful community around the world.

In almost 40 countries there have been national organizations dedicated to the game of table soccer.  Millions of players and fans enjoy foosball either casually or as a serious sport, Major events such as the World Cup of Table Soccer or other famous national events regularly redefining the sport and ranking the best players.