Let’s flashback to your days in middle school. It’s Friday afternoon and your teacher has just assigned you 20 vocabulary words to do for homework. Homework on a Friday? Yes. So you dust off the old Merriam-Webster Dictionary and have some real fun. Wait, dictionaries aren’t supposed to be fun, right?
Let’s fast forward to the present day and you crack open a different kind of dictionary, a cool one, to learn more about the world’s most popular sport. Tom Williams’ Do You Speak Football? is quite special as it includes over 700 footballing terms from 89 countries. It’s literally jam-packed with 262 pages of prized information and charming illustrations.
Why is this even necessary? It’s a simple explanation. Football is a global game and therefore, a global language. But each country has its own take on the game and its own vocabulary. You have ratonera and sotana in Argentina. Or estar en capilla and la bendita in Ecuador. Or even bayda and rqayqi in Morocco.
This book speaks to how culture, ethnicity, and geography connect with sport. It also shows us what makes one game different in every single country. Simply put, it will make you a true student of the game and an even better fan.
Williams and Bloomsbury have done the impossible; they have made a dictionary both enjoyable and hip. Now you won’t mind getting homework or checking out terms and definitions. Merriam and Webster have literally been put to shame with this one, the world’s first football glossary and an absolute must-have.
