A lot of football teams and players around the world nave nicknames and few of them are even more known by their nicknames than their real names. For example, one of the best players of all times was Edson Arantes do Nascimento, but he was wide known as Pele. “Pele” came from the wrong pronunciation of Bile’ (which meant goalkeeper those days). Actually Pele wanted to become goalkeeper in his early days and that’s why he called himself Bile’.One of his teammates in the national team of Brazil and in the same time one of the best players in the world was Manoel dos Santos, but very, very much known as Garincha. Garincha is a small bird that lives in Brazil and Manoel used to hunt this kind of birds when he was a little boy.
So, national teams, clubs, fan clubs and players have their nicknames. Some of the team nicknames are given because of their club colors like NT of Italy – Azzurri which means Blues, France national team is also called “Les Bleus” because of their club colors, “Oranje” is the nickname of Netherlands team and Spanish national squad is called La Furia Roja (The red fury).
Often named by their club colors are some Italian teams like: A.C. Milan – Rossoneri, Inter – Neroazzurri. Juventus are called Bianconeri but also “La Vecchia Signora” which means old lady. You may ask why lady, but not gentleman. That’s because "Juventus" (Youth) is a Latin word of feminine gender and “old” because it’s one of the oldest clubs in Italy, of course. Roma are called Wolves because of the legend of Rome.
In Spain most popular club nicknames are “Los Merengues” – for Real Madrid and “Blaugrana” for Barcelona. Blaugrana in Spanish means blue and deep red color and Merengue is a delicious and very expensive dessert in Spain and only the wealthiest can afford it. In the era of Figo, Zidane, Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos and Beckham, Real Madrid was also called “Los Galacticos” because of their big names and all the fame around them. You can find somewhere “Los Blancos” which refers on Real Madrid too because of their all white uniforms. Atletico Madrid’s nickname is “Colchoneros”, name given because of their red and white stripes which reminds of the old-fashioned mattresses. Villareal is “The Yellow Submarine” coz of their yellow shirts and their mascot “Groguet” who is dressed all yellow and has submarine head. Racing Santander are “Montañeses” which means highlanders.
English clubs has their nicknames too. Manchester United is often called Red Devils for their red shirts and their city rivals Manchester City are called simply The Citizens. Arsenal nickname is Gunners and Newcastle’s nickname Magpies is about their black shirts. Tottenham Hotspur is simply called Spurs and Chelsea is called London Blues, of course, because of their all blue uniforms.
From the other popular nicknames of the famous clubs we can mention Bayern Munich who were called F.C. Hollywood in the “90s coz the club was full of stars. Monaco is sometimes called The Princes because Monaco is not a part of French republic and it’s constituted as principality.
Some famous football player’s nicknames:
Zinedine Zidane – Zizou
Paul Gascoigne – Gazza
Kevin Keegan – Mighty Mouse
Ruud Gullit – "Il Tulipo Nero" (The black tulip)
Eusebio – The Black Panther
Ferenc Puskas – The Galloping Major
Alfredo di Stefano – "La Saeta Rubia" (The Blond Arrow)
Gerd Muller – Bomber
Franz Beckenbauer – Der Kaiser
Lev Yashin - The Black Spider (a goalkeeper with fantastic anticipation)
Del Piero – Pinturicchio
Di Livio – Little Soldier
Batistuta – Bati-goal
Ruud van Nistelrooy – Ruud van Goal
Dragan Stojkovic - Piksi
So if you know any other nicknames, please put a comment with it.
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