Soccer went global 100 years ago this week. Fans watching the 1924 Paris Olympics tournament must have felt the shift as they witnessed players from tiny Uruguay appear to be running circles around confounded opponents from the sport’s traditional European powers.
In the early 20th century, soccer’s power was centered in Europe, and aside from the United States, Canada and Egypt, only European teams had played in the Olympics, then the game’s world championship. Few in Paris had seen a South American team play. Uruguay, then with a population of just around 1.6 million, seemed to have no chance against the traditional European powers.