19.5. That's the percent of the population in america that plays sports and/or partakes in physical activities daily. If we brought it to a wider scale, the number would be hundreds of millions, maybe even billions of people who play sports. Knowing how many people play, what would they say is the best sport? The most beneficial? The most versatile? SOCCER

Soccer provides everything an athlete needs. Soccer polishes the fundamentals and abilities that each kid may have, and pulls out the true potential in each child. That is why soccer is the 2nd most played sport for children.

The only sport that tops it is swimming. The main reason for that though is to be able to provide kids with safety in the water. The sport, swimming, does provide benefits but these benefits are also reached through other sports like soccer.

Parents who want their kids to play sports understand that their kids must begin with basic fundamentals. That's why most parents put their kids in soccer as a first sport to play in. 

Soccer teaches teamwork in a rowdy field where you are trying to communicate with 10 other players while also trying to stop 11 other players from scoring. These ideals can also be for other sports like football or basketball, but these sports allow timeouts and or quick pauses in the game. Soccer, however, does not.

But most sports teach teamwork in a hectic field. That’s one reason sports are appealing to those who play. 

So what can’t be said for most sports? “This sport teaches footwork.” This phrase can only be said by so many sports, yet every single one of them requires it. Soccer is probably one of the only sports that dives deep into a player’s foot work.

Soccer also consumes the most calories and is the most energetic sport out there. Soccer players on average can burn 856 calories per game.  Football players burn more calories than soccer but Studies show how much an NFL player will actually play in a game. Basketball also burns less than soccer and these are some of the “hardest” sports to play. 

Now even though soccer may be one of the hardest and best sports to play, do people enjoy it? Of course they do. Soccer has over 200 million players worldwide and also out ranks the 2nd most popular sport by 1.5 billion fans with an estimated total of 4.5 billion fans.