5 Reasons Human Beings Play Soccer

Soccer, or world football, as some may name it, is perhaps one of the more enigmatic of sports. This isn't to say, of course, that all other sports are not enigmatic - there are mysterious and ideosyncratically unusual aspects to all sports, of course; its just that soccer is one of the more unusual.

For one, there isn't too much complicated about football - its just the feet, and a ball, and a matter of getting the ball, with one's feet, through the goal posts at the other end of the field. Hand contact is illegal, while headshots are welcome. It is deeply elementary, that is to say simple in form, from a conceptual point of view.

Yet how is it possible that it garners, and has garnered, so much of the sporting world's attention. More complex, or physcially demanding affairs - wrestling, boxing, tennis, swimming - have been left in the shade, to wallow in their insufficiencies. Even things like rugby, or American NFL, which demand similar skill-sets (and cranial stolidity, it may be argued), have come no where close to the popularity and global phenomenon that soccer has become.

I know very little of the intricacies of this sport - little of the players, teams, save the basics of this game, which everyone would have witnessed or partaken in some form in their lives, from the greatest of stadiums to one's local leisure park. Here now are five reasons an alien might give for the lure of soccer in the human imagination.

Its Simple: Just a Ball and Feet

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LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 19: Ramires of Chelsea runs with the ball during the FA Cup sponsored by E.ON 4th round replay match between Chelsea and Everton at Stamford Bridge on February 19, 2011 in London, England. (Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Ima

Nothing is simpler than soccer. Yes, you need some gaming materials. You need a ball, a well-trimmed lawn, and maybe something to act as a goal post. But fundamentally one needs nothing more than your feet and a ball.

Well, making a ball may not be quite so simple; yet its something akin to some of the most basic human tools ever invented - the wheel, for instance, relies on quite the same curvaceous principles. Or even more simply, anything that rolls. In fact it is quite likely that the principal lure of soccer, of a football, be found in something much less significant and world-changing - the doodle.

It is that innately human propensity to dabble, touch, fiddle with his surroundings. From one's baby years, to the boring moments in a career mid-life crisis; the stressballs, pencils, funny accessories are the things that keep one going, whether in an imaginative, creative mood, or depressed and suicidal. Soccer works on these principles - the ball and feet.

Add a field, and some vague idea of how to make this game interesting between people eager to show off their dexterity with the legs, and we have a sport.

The Passion: Anything To Get The Blood Running

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MADRID, SPAIN - JANUARY 23: Lass Diarra (L) of Real Madrid argues with Jose Nunes of Mallorca during the La Liga match between Real Madrid and Mallorca at Estadio Santiago Bernabeu on January 23, 2011 in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Denis Doyle/Getty Images

Soccer also taps into another primal human instinct, born of his earliest days in the cave - bloodlust. How often have fans, or disinterested observers, heard of the violence or unruliness that so often is sparked by a contested fowl or handball?

Soccer is not inherently a violent sport, and rarely is there bloodletting. But on occasion, in the heat of the moment built up by a midfielder's deep run to the offside, passing like a jackal to the striker for the final kill, the game elicits an intensity and bloodrush. It can only be appropriately released in two forms - euphoria, should it succeed, or anger, should it be hindered by some off-call by the umpire.

It must have something to do with the contest of it all. There's something in the pseudo-militarism of two sides desperately doing anything to overcome the other, that often excites the blood, the passion, the killer instinct - dormant in civilised man for many millenia, but by this remarkable sport made manifest.

Not all footballers are hot-headed types, of course - it must just be something about the passion of it.  

The Lust For Battle: Its a Jungle Out There

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FLORENCE, ITALY - SEPTEMBER 28: Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez talks tactics with his his team during a training session prior to the UEFA Champions League Group E match between Fiorentina and Liverpool at the Stadio Artemio Franchi stadium on Septembe

The lust for battle should not be confused with bloodlust. It is an intrinsically different thing - a much more thoughtful and complex aspect, really.

It is the opportunity for the tactical and strategic mind that soccer provides, which has its lure for some, and most likely for all. How simple, some may say - get the ball through the posts, and the win is yours! But yet to others: how complex, how perplexing; how precise must the arrangements and dispositions be!

It is this aspect which would best appeal to the academic, the strategist, the intellectual, as must as bloodlust would hearken to the pedestrian and vulgar. Soccer is a battle at heart, and more clearly than in other sports - the coach the general, the ball the artillery, the players the men. This is the startling complexity implicit in its simplicity.

At the same time, this is Realpolitik on a minor scale - war waged not for political or economic gain, but for glory and repute; this is a game, but at the same time a vicious contest for survival in the world of football.

The Art: Dance of The Feet

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PARIS, FRANCE - FEBRUARY 09: David Luiz of Brazil passes the ball during the International friendly match between France and Brazil at Stade de France on February 9, 2011 in Paris, France. (Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

So, soccer contains the mundane, the thoughtful; yet there is a third aspect, a governing principle - art. It is the sublime, sporting nirvana.

It is the emotion evoked, for the players and fans alike, when an other-worldy kick is made, that magical moment when, seconds from time-out, a winning shot is played, and skirting the grasp of the goalkeeper by the narrowest margins the ball makes it way, convincingly but unbelievably, through the goalposts.

This is astonishment and wonder, eliciting looks from people who have gazed into an unseen realm - a realm of enlightenment. But there is another aspect to art, to the sublime - the pure and simple beauty of it. So often is the human mind stimulated by the smallest of wonders, the simplest of acts; no different is this with soccer, and the kick of the ball.

In so simple a sport as football there are a complex of moves and feet-movements; it is like watching dancers, skilled pedal artistes as they maneuver the ball through the postures of possession, back and forth, across the field and down the field, hitting the roll along the green or the bomb over their heads.

In the end, it is tapping into a certain insubstantial energy, a rhythm and fluidity of movement, culminating in the final, winning, shot.

Thirst for Glory: The Easy Way Out

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LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 16: Robin van Persie of Arsenal celebrates victory after the UEFA Champions League round of 16 first leg match between Arsenal and Barcelona at the Emirates Stadium on February 16, 2011 in London, England. (Photo by Jasper Jui

Finally, soccer is intrinsically human. In, perhaps, a slightly unexpected way. Yes, soccer is about passion. Its simple, its the battle, and balls were meant to be kicked; but something still screams out the ridiculous - the simple fact that at the end of the day, people are going nuts about a ball in a field chased around by a bunch of guys.

It seems all so primal, so instinctive. Soccer is the human spirit in its rawest, crudest form. It often tallies with something innately human - that desire for glory that has driven the human mind since the turning of the first wheel. Forget your helmets, body armour, your tennis rackets, golf clubs; this is shirtless, sweaty wrestling, but on a gigantic scale. One battles not with fists and brawn, but the legs and a ball.

In the end, it is as simple as that - a goal won by the feet alone. Man should praise, rightly, the creator of his legs, that it should have engendered so miraculous a sport, so consuming a pastime. Glory, and millions, by the kick of the foot. It is the 'easy way out', a sporting concession to greed by folly - but all the more human nonetheless.