“Ball on crossbar does not change score
Ball in the area with no one to head
Ball in the net to score the goal
Who never dreamed of being a soccer player?
The flag in the stadium is a banner
The pennant hanging on the bedroom wall
The badge on the uniform shirt
What a beautiful thing, it's a football match
I can die for my team
If he loses, what a pain, huge crime
I can cry if he doesn't win
But if he wins, it's no use
There's no throat that doesn't stop screaming
The boot wears the bare foot
The royal rug is green
looking at the ball i see the sun
It's happening now, it's a football match! (...)”
(It's a football match - Skank)
You who are passionate about football surely know that you are not alone. The most popular sport in the country has millions of admirers who support the Brazilian national team and the teams that represent our states and cities. What you might not know is that inside the field and outside it there is a language used by players – amateurs or not – and all professionals who work with the promotion of the sport. Want to know what it's about?
As well as doctors, lawyers, teachers, engineers, salespeople and many other professions, in football there is also a technical language, which often only those in the area can understand: we call this language of footballers.
Football was born with football, and as the sport has an English origin, the first words that referred to it were English terms. Take a look at some examples:
center-forward = center forward
forward = forward
Corner = corner
Back (or the Portuguese form "beque") = defender
football = football
goal = goal
penalty = penalty
Over time, these expressions were Portuguese, as in the case of the words penalty, goal and football, while others were replaced by corresponding words in our language, such as center-forward, forward, corner and back. In addition to these football-specific terms, there are also slang, a very popular and creative way of speaking. Some are inquisitive, others are very funny! They can vary from region to region, and the slang that is very popular in the Northeast may be unknown in the South. See just a few examples:
Pipoqueiro: player who wavers, "yellow".
Stick leg: bad ball player.
Ball: ball.
Arquibaldo: fan who stays in the stands.
Frangueiro: goalkeeper who concedes a lot of goals.
Zebra: unexpected result for the game.
The strength of football in our culture is so great that researchers at the University of São Paulo created a Football Dictionary, in which several entries related to the world of the ball are gathered, as well as the historical origin of many of them.
By Luana Castro
Graduated in Letters