Seunghoon Paik

Stat PhD @ UC Berkeley

Foosball, Foozball, Foozeball, Fussball, or Fußball

A short introduction about foosball, a fun, glorious sport, and the Berkeley Stat department tradition.

Foosball Table
The department's foosball table in the Evans Hall lounge (2025).

What is Foosball?

Foosball, also known as table football, is a tabletop version of football (or soccer, in American English). The name originates from the German word Fußball. Similar table games were patented in the 1890s in Germany and France, and “foosball” became the common term in the US through German imports that called it “tischfußball” (literally “table football”), according to the Wikipedia page.

The concept is as simple as football itself: get the ball into the opponent’s goal. This 30 seconds clip of professional players in action says it all.

The Berkeley Statistics Department Tradition

Our department has a Tornado foosball table in the lounge (figure above)! The SGSA (Statistics Graduate Student Association) holds the Jerzy Neyman Foosball Tournament every semester, a doubles tournament with double elimination brackets. It is named after Jerzy Neyman, not just one of the most popular statisticians, but also a founder of the Statistics department at Berkeley. Read more about the department’s history here.

I am a proud three-time champion of the tournament; and now retired. You can read my interview on the SGSA website.

Learning Resources

If you have foosball players around you, learning through play is the fastest way. I had never heard of foosball before starting my PhD program, but I was lucky to learn from other great players in the department.

I also watched matches from Foosball World Championships on Youtube. Watching professional games is tremendously helpful for learning advanced techniques.

Here are some useful resources:

  • This website is an excellent resource for everyone, especially for beginners. They cover everything from basic rules to advanced tactics, including stance, hand grips (very important!), passes, catches, shots, and more. They also have instructional videos. My favorite shots are the Pull shot and Snake shot.
  • The aerial trick shot for the brave.
  • This Youtube channel has uploaded many singles and doubles matches from World Championships and Tours. Here are two matches featuring the 2024 Tornado World Championships winners in Open Singles and Women's Singles.