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One of the earliest forms of soccer in which players kicked a ball on a small field has been traced as far back as 1004 B.C. in Japan. the Munich Ethnological Museum in Germany has a Chinese text from approximately 50 B.C. that mentions games very similar to soccer that were played between teams from china and Japan. The Chinese kicked a leather ball (filled) with hari) and it is known for sure that a soccer game was played in 611 A.D. in the ancient Japanese capital Kyoto.

A Brief History of Soccer [via itw]