It was not Europeans. It was the British. And it was the upper class British. Specifically at the Oxford University. The people in both continental Europe and Britain always called it football.

"Soccer" is technically a slur for lower class football.

Even the British call it football now, but the soccer slur still lives on in America and other colonies.

It was the Brits. Europe refers to a collection of countries.

NGL I kinda forgot about rugby, fair point

And we've since corrected our mistake.