There are 3 men who are considered the inventors of foosball and at KICK we consider them the fathers of foosball.
Harold Searles Thorton
The first, and probably the most famous inventor, is Harold Searles Thorton, who lived in London around the 1920’s. The reason why he is the most famous one is that he actually holds the patent for a foosball table under the number 205 991. It all happened in 1923 and the original drawing is very similar to the patent he made. The game principle is the same. You have a cabinet with rods on both sides of the cabinet and those rods control small players on the playing field. You control the players by rotating the rods and the main goal of the game is to outscore your opponent. It is pocket soccer, so we can see why it resembles today’s foosball so much. The reason why he invented the game table is very simple. He was a fierce Tottenham Hotspurs fan and he wanted to make something in their honor. He made the first design with a box of matches and as the days passed by, the patent drawing for a foosball table was made.
Alejandro Finisterre
Besides Britain, Spain was the second country which had its fingers in foosball history. To be more exact, Alejandro Finisterre was the one with his fingers in the history of foosball. He wasn’t a fan of some Spanish foosball club, but he was a brilliant man who wanted to help other people, especially kids. His idea of a foosball table was born when he was in the hospital. He was injured during the Spanish Civil War in 1936 and during his recovery, he saw kids with severe leg injuries. Those kids weren’t able to play football and he wanted to do something that would give them a similar experience, but in a format which would be good for them. He was the designer, and the carpenter, Francisco Javier Altuna, was the engineer who made every all of Alejandro’s designs become real. There is even a story where Alejandro brought the design of a table in the patent office, but on the way there he was forced to leave Spain, so the papers never managed to arrive at the office.
Lucien Rosengart
Another European country that is involved in foosball history is France. Lucien Rosengart is a famous French engineer who was connected mostly to the car industry. The most famous industry we can connect Lucien to today is Citroen, one of the biggest car brands in France. But, his foosball story has nothing to do with cars, it has something to do with his character. Lucien was an inventor and he loved to invent new things, so foosball tables weren’t a problem for him. It all started one winter day when his grandchildren were stuck inside due to a snow blizzard. They were bored because they couldn’t go out and play in the snow. So, Lucien decided to make a game they could all enjoy without stepping one foot out of the house. With a few brainstorms and design adjustments, the entertainment for his grandchildren was done in the form of a foosball table. That happened around the 1930s, which is almost a decade after Britain invention, but the principle was the same.
As you can see, every invention happened in a 10 year period which is pretty cool, but if you ask me, Harold Searles Thorton is the one who should be the father of foosball, due to his official patent in the London patent office.