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Soccer is a sport beloved around the world and tracing back to the third millennium BCE, when the earliest form of the sport involved kicking around a leather ball stuffed with feathers. The sport is known as football around most of the globe, though it's called soccer in Australia and the United States, the latter a nation where the term “football” generally refers to a sport that shares historical roots with “soccer” and boasts many similarities but overall has very different game-play rules. Soccer came into vogue in London, England, by the 1800s and today fields 300 professional leagues around the world with hundreds of millions of enthusiastic fans, followers, and devotees.
In the United States, soccer has long been a popular sport among the academic set, where students from elementary level through college play for enjoyment and competition. But its popularity as a professional sport has grown significantly since the first Federation International Football Association (FIFA) World Cup was held in the United States in 1994; that event inspired the striking of United States commemorative coins that year honoring the internationally televised sporting spectacle. The year 1994 also marked the inaugural National Soccer Day, an annual event that is held every July 28 to pay homage to the field sport.
So, how can you celebrate National Soccer Day? You could don your kit (or player’s uniform) and boots (cleats), hop onto the pitch – er, that’s the soccer field – and try scoring a GOOOOoooooalllllllllllllllllllllllllllll. Or, you could add some soccer coins to your collection! And, thankfully for numismatists, there are plenty of soccer coins – and PCGS Registry Sets accommodating them – to do just that. In fact, along with the 1994 World Cup Clad Half Dollar, Silver Dollar, and Gold $5. The United States Mint also struck commemoratives for the 2026 FIFA World Cup Games held in the United States. The PCGS Set Registry makes a perfect pitch – or place – for this numismatic game of soccer to unfold.