Europeans came up with the word “soccer” as a shortened form of “Association football” to distinguish it from the numerous other forms of football being played (rugby etc).
So, it’s your fault anyway.
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.
A small group of people from of a single country does not represent the entire population of the continent.
The sentence "Americans say ‘aloha’ instead of ‘hello’* is just as right or wrong.
“Europeans” is too vague. Why would you refer to Europe like it’s one country?
