Sport in South America

The most popular sport in South America is association football (also known as soccer). There are a wide range of sports played in the continent of South America. Popular sports include baseball, basketball, rugby union, tennis, golf, volleyball, hockey, beach volleyball, and motorsports.

South America held its first Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2016. Two years prior to this, major cities in Brazil hosted the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

South America and Europe share the supremacy over the sport, as all national team winners in FIFA World Cup history and all winning teams at the FIFA Club World Cup have come from these two continents. Brazil holds the world record at the FIFA World Cup with five titles in total. Argentina and Uruguay have two titles each. So far four South American nations have hosted the tournament including its first edition in Uruguay (1930). The other three were Brazil (1950), Chile (1962), and Argentina (1978). Brazil was the host country for the second time in 2014.

South America is home to the longest running international Football tournament; Copa América, which has been regularly contested since 1916. Uruguay have won the Copa America a record 15 times, beating hosts Argentina in 2011 to reach 15 titles (they were previously equal on 14 titles each during the 2011 Copa America). The continent has produced many of the most famous and most talented players including Alfredo Di Stéfano, Pelé, Alberto Spencer, Teófilo Cubillas, César Cueto, Enzo Francescoli, Arsenio Erico, Elías Figueroa, Diego Maradona, Iván Zamorano, Gabriel Batistuta, Ronaldo, Claudio Pizarro, Neymar, Luis Suárez and Lionel Messi.

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