In the soccer-mad countries, stars such as Ronaldinho, Roberto Carlos, Romario, Marco Etcheverry, Jorge Campos, Luis Hernandez, etc. are idolized and emulated by fans, young and old. At the grassroots level, soccer is popular because the sport can be played virtually anywhere with any equipment. Soccer can be played alone or with others. The regulation game is played with eleven people per side. A popular variant known as indoor , which is invariably played outdoors, has six players per side.
Pickup games can have any number of people and even dogs.
In these two places, baseball mania is at the same level for soccer elsewhere in Latin America. Many players from these countries play in the US Major League Baseball , including stars such as Sammy Sosa, Roberto Alomar, Bobby Bonilla, Andres Galarraga, and Bernie Williams. In the winter, both Puerto Rico and Venezuela have baseball leagues in which present and future major leagues players come to hone their skills. Perhaps the sport that is most uniformly popular across all countries is basketball, as shown in the chart below. Names such as Michael Jordan, Dennis Rodman, Shaquille O'Neal and Patrick Ewing are household names all over the world.