MyATMPinIs1234

"It has been proposed that the hominid lineage began when a group of chimpanzee-like apes began to throw rocks and swing clubs at adversaries, and that this behaviour yielded reproductive advantages for millions of years, driving natural selection for improved throwing and clubbing prowess. (link)"

Whatever the cause, our elite throwing ability is the result of ancient morphological and neurological changes unique to humans, and have been integral to hunting and warfare for millennia.

In modern society sports have generally replaced hunting and warfare as a means to express our evolutionary heritage for competition and aggression. This is why sports generally require throwing a ball or clubbing an object. Baseball, basketball, football, hockey, golf, badminton, bowling, cricket, bocce, billiards, javelin, polo (water and horse), racquetball, etc. Sometimes sports are just fighting and hunting, like martial arts, wresting, fishing, boxing, fencing, and hockey.

This leaves soccer in a strange place. While I imagine our ancestors occasionally kicked or headbutted prey or an adversary, this certainly was not the preferred method and was probably limited to humans that had severe injury to their arms that precluded their use. In this way, in the taxonomy of human activity, I believe soccer should be categorized as a general leisure activity or perhaps hobby, but not a sport.

Up until now I haven't distinguished between genders, however it's interesting to note that modern humans display a strong sexual dimorphism with respect to elite overhand throwing. In some ways, soccer represents the historical role of women, using team work to go out and gather objects to bring back and deposit it safely, while avoiding having it taken by a the women of a neighboring tribe through trickery but generally without violence. So being charitable there is a basis for concluding that soccer is a girl sport.