Germans Love David Hasselhoff/Sports

• Bandy, a sport roughly described as field hockey on ice (with a ball) originated in England, but is today nearly exclusive to the Nordic countries and Russia.
• The first game of Baseball as we know it was in America, and it is still popular in the original country with the sport being called "America's National Pastime." However, baseball is also immensely popular in Japan and Latin America.
• Basketball was indeed invented in America by a Canadian and remains most popular in the US and Canada, but the sport is immensely popular in much of Europe and parts of Latin America, especially in countries neighboring the US, and in many East Asia countries.
• Bullfighting probably originated in Rome, but has in modern times been endemic to Spain, Portugal and Latin America.
• Curling is a Scottish game, yet anyone who has paid any attention at all to it (even via stereotype) knows that Canada has become the true power and home of the the sport, having dominated international competition for decades. There are an estimated 1.5 million curlers (people who play at least semi-regularly) in the world. Approximately 1.3 million of them are in Canada.
  • And not just in playing. Canada's National Research Council has supported projects involving the sport such as studying methods of controlling condensation on the ice. Curling is Serious Business.
• Volleyball is made in America and while it is popular there, it's not top-level. In Brazil however, specially after victorious generations in both indoors and beach volleyball, it's popularity is practically only behind soccer.
• Cricket originated from England and is popular in the UK and many Commonwealth nations, but soccer overshadows it as the most popular sport; whereas in India and Sri Lanka, Cricket is the most popular sport in those nations and Cricket stars get near-god-like celebrity status, on par with movie stars and actors.
• Motorcycle speedway was invented in Australia, but is today nearly endemic to Europe.
• Rugby originated from England; and is very popular in the UK and other Commonwealth nations, but soccer overshadows it as the most popular sport; whereas in Australia and New Zealand, rugby is basically the national pastime (although it shares that distinction in Australia with Aussie Rules Football).
• Although The Beautiful Game was generated in England and is immensely popular in Europe, it was in South America (especially in Argentina and Brazil, long time soccer rivals) which helped make it's popularity soar. It has also gained immense popularity in Africa and has recently also become so in Asia, in thanks to its simple rules (other than perhaps the offsides) and the only requirement is a ball and two goalposts (or at least anything that resembles a goalpost like a space between two trashcans or something). However, like anything in life, you can't please everyone, and what prevents it from being truly a "World Game" is that the sport has had difficulty in gaining a following in Oceania (most notably Australia and New Zealand) and North America north of Mexico (especially in Canada and the United States), but even in these countries, soccer is still very popular at least as a recreational and youth sport and their national team is still well rooted upon.
  • As a Brasilian saying goes: "Os ingleses inventaram o futebol, os brasileiros o aperfeiçoaram" (The Brits invented football, the Brazilians perfected it).
  • Its importance in South America is so big, that the word was changed to fit spanish phonetics (fútbol). (Mexico still uses the unmodified phonetic (futból)).
• Speaking of soccer, The word "soccer", an abbreviation of Association Football, is used in the United States, Canada, Australia, Ireland, South Africa, Japan, and several other countries to distinguish the different "footballs". However in Britain, the word's country of origin (no, really), as well as other countries that have soccer... er, football as the number one sport, the word seems to make a lot of people cringe. For some reason though, despite its British origins, the Americans are normally blamed and flamed for the creation of the word.
• American Football is very popular in Canada, mainly this is because Canadian Football; the second most popular sport in the country behind Hockey, is basically quite similar to American Football, with some notable differences. Toronto for example, has plenty of Buffalo Bills fans, and the team has even had games played there. Some Canadians have even pushed for NFL teams in Canada; but due to issues ^[1], that isn't likely to happen anytime soon.
• While Ice Hockey was created in Canada and is immensely popular there, it is also popular in Russia, Sweden, Finland, the Czech Republic, and the Northern United States. Not so much in the Southern United States though considering that there is little to no snow in those areas and hockey is obviously popular in places where it snows in the winter, although Los Angeles and Dallas are two exceptions.
• In the early 1990s, the Canadian Football League started up four teams in the United States. Three of those teams didn't do very well. The fourth, however, moved into Baltimore, which had been football-starved ever since the Baltimore Colts snuck out of town in the middle of the night in 1983. Baltimore welcomed their new CFL team with open arms. The team, which changed names from "Colts" to "CFL Colts" to "CFLs" to "Stallions" due to the NFL calling copyright on the Colts name, was turning a significant profit. However, the CFL administration decided to close the franchise with the rest of the team rather than take a chance on competing with the NFL's Baltimore Ravens.
  • Actually, they moved to Montreal and became the second Montreal Alouettes (the original team folded in 1987).

1. ↑ Mainly the existence of the Canadian Football League.