ENGLAND

music: Floetry-Floetic

Quite simply, the birthplace of soccer.

According the English Football Association website, "In the eighteenth century, the game was taken up by the public schools who, realising the importance of team sport, invented their own versions of the game. By 1848 the first serious attempts were being made by Cambridge University to set up a common set of laws. Fifteen years later, The Football Association was founded and Association Football, the game that is played around the world today, was born."

The British used to boast that the sun never set on its Empire and British sailors took the game the world over, including the Caribbean (see the Caribbean section to see how many nations there were introduced to the game by member of Her Majesty's Royal Navy) and in South America (manifested in clubs like Newell's Old Boys in Argentina).

But the British influence on the game is not rooted only in its invention of the game or even that it took place in the first international match against Scotland but through some all time great players like Bobby Charlton, Bobby Moore of the 1966 World Cup Winning side, Legendary GoalKeeper Gordon Banks, Sir Stanley Matthews and more recently players like Alan Shearer, Michael Owen and the most popular player on the planet (right now) David Beckham. The now under construction Wembley Stadium is considered Ground Zero for the world's game.

The English Premiere League is considered one of the most exciting in the world and the atmosphere in places like Old Trafford, home of Manchester United, Highbury, home of Arsenal or the stadium for Liverpool F.C., Anfield make English game one of the most watched in the world.

Bobby Moore is hoisted on the shoulders of his teammates
following England's win over Germany in the 1966 Final.
Sir Geoffrey Hurst, to the left of Moore is the only player
to score a hat trick in the final.
(aboutsoccer.com)

David Beckham Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen
have been the 3 biggest stars for England in recent years
(MSN/Fox Sports)