Spikeball CEO sees soccer connections as Cristiano Ronaldo spotlights roundnet

Roundnet is getting a new sales pitch, and soccer is making it. Cristiano Ronaldo’s casual post with a Spikeball set and outreach from Paris Saint-Germain for a possible collaboration have put the sport in front of the kind of audience that can move it from niche recreation to mainstream crossover.

That matters because Spikeball, the best-known brand in the sport of roundnet, is already selling a bigger vision than beach play and backyard games. The company was founded in 2008 by Chris Ruder, while the underlying game concept dates to 1989, when toy designer Jeff Knurek created it. Spikeball describes roundnet as a 2-vs-2 game, and its official materials frame it as something that fits parks, backyards, beaches and organized tournaments alike.

The soccer connection is not just celebrity sheen. Spikeball’s leadership has pointed to the way soccer players tend to bring over footwork, spatial awareness and quick reactions that translate cleanly to competitive roundnet. That is exactly the kind of crossover that can matter when a sport is trying to grow beyond casual play and into a repeatable pipeline.

The numbers show how much that pipeline has already widened. Spikeball says its college roundnet program includes 125-plus clubs, more than 1,100 players, 21 U.S. events and 10 U.S. sections. The company has also said roundnet has more than 4 million players worldwide, a scale that makes every new entry point valuable, especially one tied to soccer’s massive youth and club network.

That is where the Texas A&M connection becomes more than a footnote. Aggies goalkeeper coach Ali Hanif joined the program in January 2026 after a coaching career that began in 2008. His background includes NCAA Division I stops at Kansas State, Arizona State, Cal State Bakersfield and Illinois State, plus MLS playing experience from 2009 to 2022 with New England Revolution, Minnesota United FC, Chicago Fire FC and Atlanta United. If a coach with that kind of resume is comfortable around roundnet, it is a strong sign the sport is creeping into places where soccer people already live.

Spikeball has spent years building roundnet as a social sport and an organized one at the same time. The Ronaldo post and the PSG outreach suggest the next stage is not just more players, but more recognizable gateways into the game. If soccer keeps opening those doors, roundnet’s fastest growth may come not from the backyard at all, but from the training ground.