Wayne Rooney, Pele, George Best and many more from past to present happened to be stars on the soccer pitch. Are there stars on the table version? Yes there are, and this international game is working very hard at becoming recognized as a sport! This article discusses the different names this game is known by and the stars that have won many competitions locally, nationally and internationally.

Table soccer is also known by several other names such as table football, foosball, and hand football game, just to name a few. This game was once only known in pubs and bars around Europe and has grown by leaps and bounds to become an international game that is trying to become recognized as a sport. Right now this type of gaming is recognized as a form of professional gaming.

The creation of the organized competitions started back in the 40′s and 50′s in Europe. Lee Peppard of Seattle, Washington stepped the game up a few notches by creating competitions that actually offered a quarter of a million dollars in various prize monies. The creator of these events held them for six years before going out of business. These large purses for prizes attracted international attention.

Recent competitions lead up to the International Table Soccer Federation World Cup of Table Soccer, also known as the acronym ITSF. The final combat that was fought out at the tables was between France and the United States. The stars of the event were Atha, Hamilton, and Shovelton. The United States took the tournament that was held in January of 2010. This tournament was held in Nantes, France where forty eight men and women competed. More than five hundred athletes from thirty six countries internationally were in the drawing for this event that was combined with the ITSF World championships.

The matches in both of these gaming events held a few surprises that came about in the intense play of the matches. The USA’s men’s team for the World Cup fought it out with the team from the Netherlands. They even were able to fly right past the arch-rival team from France that in the past swept the tournament that was held in Hamburg, Germany in 2006. The greatest and most unforeseen was the slim victory by Luxembourg’s boisterous Yannic Correia against USA’s Tony Spredeman.

Should this gaming past time be admitted into the arena of sports? Training takes place for the serious players for several hours each day where the team members hone their tactics and study the opposition. The skills and training are certainly reflective of a sport. Petitions have been filed; only time will tell how all this will play out.

There is serious money that accompanies the competitions of this game, just as in professional sports betting. Competition rules are very strict and the skills required for this game are nothing to laugh at. Precision, timing, aim and a second sight, if you will, as to what the opposition is planning to do to trounce the competition all line up just like major sports events.

There are rising stars on the local, national and international levels of the teams. When these stars play, they draw big crowds of onlookers and want-to-be contenders. This is a gaming past time that is worth keeping an eye on, especially if this game is allowed into the arena of professional sports.  There just may be an Olympic event one of these days.

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