The English like to claim they invented the game…but did they really? At the risk of alienating some of our red and white fans, we couldn’t resist this fun piece of trivia: football may have actually been invented over two millennia ago in China. While the rules for the modern game didn’t start to get laid out until the middle of the 19th century, the Chinese were playing the game cuju or “kickball” for over 2,000 years. And according to the BBC, they were as mad about kickball as modern fans. Everyone from the lowliest street urchins to the emperor played the game. There were even professional teams with managers, coaches, and captains. These teams would be followed by clubs of dedicated supporters. There are even well-established rules for etiquette and sportsmanship.

How different is it from the modern version? It’s two teams trying to kick a ball into a 10 m high netted goal, passing to teammates and tackling each other along the way. The team that gets the most goals wins the game. Sound familiar? A notable difference is the absence of a goalkeeper.

No cultural appropriation here. Move along, folks: While the sport remains obscure outside of China, the UK has given credit to cuju as the original football. "While England is the birthplace of the modern game as we know it, we have always acknowledged that the origins of the game lie in China," said Kevin Moore, director of the National Football Museum.

What can this teach us about the modern game? In it’s 2000 year history cuju has taken many forms and rules, including a version where the objective is to keep the ball volleyed in the air (think foot volleyball). When considering the fact that football in 1860s included a lot of hand play (that’s where Aussie Rules Football evolved), we can certainly be sure that the game we love today will not be same a few centuries down the road.

You can check out this short (but blurry) explainer from Discovery on the history of cuju (watch, runtime: 1:19).