The Best Selection in 'Soccer for the Hands' - Better Known as "Foosball"!

               Did you ever wonder how a recreational game best described as "table soccer" got the name "foosball"?
Not only that, but how did it get here?

               Well, the answer to the first question is pretty easy.  The word "foosball" is a corrupted spelling (and pronunciation) of the German word for football, which is "fussball".  In the United States of course, we know this as "soccer".  However, the four European countries involved (more or less) with the advent of foosball don't even include Germany.  They're England, Spain, and France (by way of the Belgium).  

               This makes the answer to the second question a bit more nebulous and a lot more difficult to ascertain.   Although no one is really sure which individual (or group of individuals) actually invented the game of table soccer (a.k.a. foosball), there is evidence to indicate that the game was initially developed in Spain as early as the 1890s.  It would go through several developmental stages before becoming the table game that we know today.

               It was Harold Searles Thornton of England who initially saw the business potential for the new game when he was issued the first patent on the game in 1923.  But, in effect, he was only patenting an idea at the time because he was not personally responsible for making the concept into a physical product.  

               According to a prominent Belgian newspaper, French inventor (and highly successful automotive engineer) Lucien Rosengart is credited with creating and designing the first actual foosball table in the early 1930s.

Lucien Rosengart

  But since there is no other historical corroboration for that claim anywhere else but in that single news article in the early 1930s, it's not an adequate amount of information to make the claim unequivocal.  Therefore, the definitive answer to that question remains a mystery.  

               Nonetheless, it is appropriate that the person, who is unequivocally credited with creating the modern version of the game, as we know it today, was from Spain - the place where it all began decades earlier.  

               Alejandro Finesterre was born Alexandre Campos Ramírez in 1919 to the radio-telegraphist at the lighthouse in Finisterre, Spain.  He was injured when Francisco Franco's fascist forces bombed Madrid in November 1936.  He had the idea for a football game while in Barcelona recovering.  While convalescing in Montserrat, Catalonia, he realized that he and his fellow wounded Republicanos would never play football (soccer) on a field again, hence the idea for the table game.  He subsequently patented his invention in Barcelona in 1937.*  So, in effect, the game as we know it today was actually borne from humanitarian needs.  Finesterre's version of the game was known as "futbolito".

Alejandro Finesterre, with his version of "futbolito", 
the seminal version of modern "foosball".

               But whether you call it foosball, futbolito, table soccer or "soccer for the hands", we can all agree that it adds up to countless hours of competitive fun.  Moreover, you don't have to travel to England, France, Belgium or Spain to find a selection of foosball tables comparable to our selection here at Loria.  From traditional style models to the most modern designs, there is no compromise on the quality of our foosball tables.  Check out our website today for the full selection!

*Biographical information on Alejandro Finesterre courtesy of Wikipedia.com