In the United States and Canada, where other football codes predominate, soccer is the most commonly used term for association football. To accord with the widespread worldwide usage of the term, Australia’s association football regulating body changed its name from soccer to football in 2005.

In the 1880s, linguistically inventive students at Oxford University distinguished between the games of “rugger” (rugby football) and “assoccer” (soccer) (association football). The latter term was abbreviated to “soccer” (often written “socker”), and the moniker quickly became popular outside of campus.

That’s why people call it soccer.