I'm curious, how's basketball and football doing in Europe?
I do not know to date, when I lived in London, many years ago, Baseball was played by some ex-pats here and there in some parks, nothing big. (I think some of the military bases had some teams, I had a couple of friends from the US bases, but did not play Baseball nor Football).
Basketball was popular in Italy, (the former Yugoslavia), and a few other countries, Romania comes to mind, at some degree of professional level. I do believe there is some professional championship in Europe.
Football (American), had a few games staged by pro teams from the US coming to play as a pre-season warm ups. other than that same as with baseball, as above.
Again, my knowledge of European sports is aged...
In Latin America, Baseball is big, (profesional), Mexico, Venezuela, have big leagues, (and somehow Cuba manages to have some players, where the sport seems to be very popular). Basketball is not as big, and I am not aware of a pro-league, mainly college and/or amateur, Brazil does have an excellent Olympic class team. Football, only at the high school and college level, and in Mexico only.
Of course the Superbowl is very popular both in Latin America, and I do believe in Europe as well.
Ice Hockey is nearly non-existent, a few informal leagues here and there, (in Mexico).
There are lots of interest in athletics, track and field, marathon events, long distance walking and the like, but the resources are very limited.
Against this backdrop, Soccer is the undisputed king of sports lots of money, TV coverage, big tournaments, and a passion that it is unrivaled. Brasil and Argentina are the Titans, [but in Brasil, it is a near-religion], closely followed by Uruguay, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Chile, Costa Rica, and Colombia... the rest of the countries, although popular, with local important leagues, their national teams are not as good as the above mentioned ones.
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