June 17, 2004

Curious George: Soccer/Football? In honour of Euro2004, I'd like to find out what they call this lovely sport in other parts of the world and in other languages.

Soccer in North America, football in the UK, fussball in Deutschland... but elsewhere? Also, in most other countries, would these names for the game translate roughly as "football" as is the case with the German "fussball"? I was having a conversation with somebody who was convinced that "football" is a name applied to about a million different sports, so I'm sort of curious. And while I'm at in, I've always wondered how that OTHER football (in the United States) got named what it was, when there was already a UK football. Or did these two names come about in different places at different times? Yes, I'd basically like you all to write a brief research paper on the subject. Do it for footy footy footy. (Sorry for the two posts in a single day. I won't make a habit of it.)

posted by The Sacred and Profane 20 years ago
  • Us in the UK call your football "American football". Which, when you think about it, kinda makes sense.
  • In Brazil they call it futebol. It's clear where the origins come from, but it doesn't really translate to anything in Portuguese, other than something the country comes to a grinding halt to watch.
  • In Italy, it's calcio.
  • Soccer comes from Association Football. It was used, I expect, to differentiate between Rugby and football, because Rugby was known as Rugby Football, and football was Association Football. Us in the UK call your football "American football". Except for BBC's teletext, which calls it Gridiron, for some reason or other.
  • As an Uhmurikin, I have no idea what you're talking about.
  • Football, pete_best.
  • The name soccer comes from a shortening of the word association. This goes back a hundred years, or so, when there was two types of football in England. They were distinguished by being called Association Football, shortened to soccer, and Rugby Football, shortened to rugger. In the old days, soccer was for the working classes, and rugger was for the posh. Nowadays, anybody that has sat in the stands with some Bradford Bulls supporters might find that difficult to believe. Rugby, incidentally, got its name from the public school where it was first played. In England, a public school is what is known as a private school in the rest of the world. P.S. I was just being facetious about the Bradford Bulls fans. They're great.
  • I've also heard it called Gridiron as well, when I was in Australia. From what I can tell (Wikipedia is your friend), the two forms took shape around the same time.
  • we call it "that sport those guys overseas play"
  • In England, a public school is what is known as a private school in the rest of the world. so, um, if the public schools are called public schools but actually they're private, what are the private schools called? *blinks confusingly*
  • i guess that would be *blinks confusedly* I'M CONFUSED AND BLINKING, DAMN IT
  • They're called state schools. To distinguish themselves from the public schools, which ain't public. Yeah, it's stupid.
  • Dutch: Balletje trappen; biertje happen. (kicking a small ball, biting a small beer)
  • jernie! i think that should win.
  • fu
  • fu
  • Nancyball. Actually, soccer. Well, depending on who you talk to.
  • I'm very proud of this thread. Good work everyone, and thanks for your insight! It is all very interesting, and is making my Euro 2004 hype grow more and more. God, I hope Germany can keep it together this time around. They're so unpredictable sometimes. If we have more information, by all means, keep it flowin'!
  • In French: soccer (North America), football (Europe).
  • In Sweden we call it fotboll. Btw, can someone enlighten me on why the American version of rugby is called football? You don't use your fucking feet! Also, in Portugal they say futebol.
  • dubstop: should we not differentiate between Rugby League (working class, pretty specific to Yorkshire, Lancashire and Australia, 13 players per side, always been professional) and Rugby Union (posh, more widespread, 15 players per side, used to be amateur) ... Both pale into insignificance next to the glory that is football
  • called Gridiron as well, when I was in Australia. No, you didn't. Gridiron is American football. We call the round ball game "soccer" here, "football" being reserved for the Australian game.
  • no! crap. he's gone?
  • So I read rory. Apparently he'll be buried back home. I feel mortal. The beauty's dying.
  • my favourite story: Best often told the story of a bellboy who entered his hotel room with breakfast in the early 1970s. Seeing Best in bed with the current Miss World, a magnum of champagne and several thousand pounds of cash won from a night's gambling, the youth exclaimed, "George, where did it all go wrong?"
  • I truly wish I'd seen that fella in his prime.
  • do try to catch whatever television footage is shown over the next few days - the ball had a magnetic attraction to best, and he made it look so fucking easy. it's like watching poetry, or a little morsel of the divine transposed onto a football pitch. i'd rate him above maradonna (though i think maradonna was a superbly talented player); best was on a par with pele, given that they played quite a different style of football.
  • The "Been there" article is the first thing that ever made me actually want to watch a game of what the rest of the world calls "football."
  • God, but he was good.
  • Have seen a few clips over and over again these past 24 hours and what's amazing is how rarely he actually touched the ball. His body did most of the work, feinting this way and that, dropping a shoulder and mesmerising opponents.
  • Poetry in motion Flash video
  • Also just read elsewhere that George once appeared on the "Mrs Merton' show and her first question to him was: "George, do you think it was all that running around that made you so thirsty?" which had him in stiches
  • Poetry in motion Isn't the jockstrap that goalkeeper lost in a museum somewhere, Abiezer?