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There seems to be a lot of huff and puff coming from China about how the beautiful game originated in China.
However, here is a very detailed answer that seems to indicate the greeks were playing a football-like game 1500 years before the chinese football-like game, called Cujo.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Did_Football_originate_in_China
However, FIFA.COM seems to support the China theory by saying that forms of 'football' played by the greeks before the Chinese had mostly use of the hands and little use by the feet. See:
http://www.fifa.com/classicfootball/history/game/historygame1.html
My opinion: The Chinese seem to want to be the origin of everything. In this case, there seems to be no link between the modern game and the Chinese version. I'll go with the greek version as the origin.
studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing
or learning to do." Pele
