What type of potato are you? Learn to speak football with this global glossary of weird and wonderful soccer expressions
If you’ve ever felt the need to know 29 ways of saying ‘nutmeg’ then this book of football terms from around the world is for you
Williams, who covers football for Agence France-Presse from London, has written Do You Speak Football?, a glossary of football terms from around the world.
That’s how you’ll know that “Dundee United” means idiot in parts of Nigeria; that you don’t want to be called “lettuce hands” or “wooden leg” in Brazil; or that Italian coaches don’t want to “eat the panettone”.
It really is Roy of the Rovers stuff – another term handily explained – to know that “potato” is a long-range strike in France and a utility player in Norway.
Football nerds will not be shocked to hear that such manna came about from the thinking football hipster’s favourite journalist.
“Jonathan Wilson had been asking me to write something for the football quarterly The Blizzard, which he edits, and I had the idea of writing a glossary of French football terms to coincide with Euro 2016,” Williams told the South China Morning Post.
