The 2024 UEFA European Football Championship (also known as Euro 2024) is stirring up football fever all over the world.
This year the championship will be staged by three-time Euro winners Germany and will take place from 14 June to 14 July across ten venues. But did you know that Germany has a unique football vernacular, with a fascinating history behind it?
BBC Bitesize interviewed World Cup historian Christoph Marx to ask how the language of the game has changed as its popularity in Germany grew. From Gurkenspiele to the lucky Fußballgott, here’s our guide to the history of German football phrases that will help you sound like a local as you catch the game.
Christoph Marx is a historian who specialises in football jargon
Kim: A game of two halves, missed a sitter, clean sheet, nutmeg, dink. Words and phrases football fans up and down the country are more than a little familiar with. But it’s not just UK supporters of the game that have got their own lingo going on. Here in Germany, they give us Brits a run for our money when it comes to footballing words and phrases. So I’ve come to meet a German football language expert here in Berlin, to find out more.
K: Hi I’m Kimberley, nice to meet you.
Christoph: Hello, Christoph Marx, hello, hello.
K: So Christoph, we know now that Germans love football just as much as people in the UK, but that wasn’t always the case was it?
C: No, it was not always the case. In the beginning, especially the establishment in Germany, don’t like the game. Because they see it as a very emotional game, that was not typical German.
K: Am I right in thinking that Germany really wanted to distance itself from England when it came to footballing phrases?
C: As a way to make this “English” game to a German way was the method of language. To replace every English original phrase to a German one. One German teacher, Konrad Koch, from Braunschweig had made it his task to replace every phrase.
K: And when I was researching for this interview Christoph, I came across the word “Bananenflanke” which is obviously to curl the ball in German, I hope I got the pronunciation right.
C: It’s like the curve of a banana.
K: Yeah, yeah and we’ve got a similar phrase in the UK. A lot of words and phrases seem to come from animals and from fruit.
C: We have our “Gurkenspiel” – “cucumber game”, it’s a game of very poor quality. And there’s another word “Fliegenfänger” – “catcher of the flies”, if a goalkeeper defends very badly and a lot of goals were scored. One other really nice phrase is “Kopfballungeheuer”, it’s a monster of the header, to score a goal. Harry Kane is always a Kopfballungeheuer.
K: Now, in the next few weeks there is going to be an influx of England and Scotland fans coming over here to Germany ahead of the Euros. Could you teach me one key phrase that we all need to know?
C: There’s a phrase of the phrase, it’s the one phrase you can use nearly in every context and that’s “Das ist Fußball” – That is football. If you win, if you lose, if the game is beautiful, if it’s ugly. “That is football”, it’s a phrase that works everywhere. And perhaps for English it’s interesting, “Elfmeterschießen” – Penalty Shootout.
K: Don’t bring them up Christoph!
C:Penalty killer! Penalty killer! It’s very interesting, I think you will be in touch with this.
K: We live in hope, but either way das ist Fußball!
C: Ja, das ist Fußball, genau! You win, and sometimes you lose.
K: Finally Christoph, I could not let you go without asking you as a historian specialising in football jargon, what your favourite words and phrases are in German?
C: One of the phrases I like most is “Fußballgott” (Football God). You can hope we are lucky to win and we hope for the Fußballgott to be on our side.
K: Well Christoph, it has been lovely chatting to you but I do hope the Fußballgott is not with you this time and it’s with England and Scotland, the Home Nations.
C: Yes! We will see, we will see!
K: We’ll see!
Why did Germany adopt its own football language?
Nowadays, it’s safe to say Germany is as keen on the game as the UK is - but that wasn’t always the case. Football as we know it evolved from Victorian boys’ school games, and the official rules were published in 1863 with the formation of the English Football Association. It grew in popularity all over the world, but it wasn’t well-known with the German people, or particularly well-liked.
“Football became slowly popular [in Germany] in the first half of the 20th Century, in times where new mass media like radio were invented and brought the game to bigger parts of the society,” says Christoph.
Before this, football was considered an ‘ugly’ sport by the establishment, or German state ruled by an emperor (der Kaiser), also the official name of the German Empire.. In contrast, gymnastics was an example of a ‘German sport’, with flowing movements that embodied ideals such as discipline, order and Körperbeherrschung (body control).
“Against this, football was seen as emotional, anarchic and non-calculated, not really controllable – and so ‘dangerous’ for the establishment.
"To be accepted by the establishment, it must be made into a German game through the language.”
How did German football language evolve?
In 1874, German secondary school teacher and football pioneer Konrad Koch from Braunschweig organised the first football game in Germany.
He made it his mission to translate footie terms to sound uniquely German, and in 1903, printed his own German football ‘rulebook’ documenting them.
For example, games were overseen by a Spielkaiser (emperor of the game), who acted as team captain and referee.
Rather than use passen (to pass), Koch taught his students ‘to give up’ the ball (aufgaben).
This might seem very specific, but it was important to ‘Germanise’ the game for it to be accepted. However, this wasn’t the case in all German-speaking countries:
“Only in Germany there was such language purism,” says Christoph. “Not in Austria or Switzerland where there are today still some English phrases in the domestic language.”
For example, Austria uses Goalie, Corner and Assist, where Germany uses Der Torwart (or Torhüter), Ecke and Abgane respectively.
What role do journalists and football fans play in creating footballing jargon?
“Language is a vivid organism and is developing further and further,” says Christoph. “Media, especially journalism and of course social media - but also fans are creating always new phrases. If one invented phrase is often repeated in media and fans, a phrase will live on and be integrated into the football vocabulary.”
The football language in Germany is becoming more international, especially due to factors such as managers in the Bundesliga (German football league) coming from elsewhere in Europe.
“Because of the many international players and trainers who play football in Germany and speak often only broken German there are new A newly-coined word or phrase, often accepted into mainstream language. - mixture words from German and mostly English. An example is ‘The no-look-pass’.”
Learn some essential German football jargon:
Der Tor - Goal
Abseits - Offside
Eine gelbe/rote Karte - Yellow/red card
Er/sie hat den Ball - He/she has the ball
Das war knapp! - That was close!
Einwechslung - Substitution
Um ein Haar! - By a hair!
Verlängerung - Extra time
Freistoß - Free kick
Anstoß - Kick-off
What key words and phrases should England and Scotland fans should look out for in Germany?
“Quite a lot of German phrases are from the fruit and animals,” Christoph laughs. “A lion is a symbol of the wildness of the game, so we might say ‘fight like a lion’, be strong.”
The German term Bananenflanke means to curve the ball (referring to the shape of a banana), similar to ‘bending the ball’ in English. A Gurkenspiel (cucumber game) is a poorly-played game on both sides, and a Fliegenfänger (fly catcher) is a goalkeeper who fumbles - like the English term ‘butterfingers’.
Christoph also recommends the phrase “Das ist Fußball” (That’s football) which is applicable for nearly every situation when you want to say something is typical football.
“If you win, if you lose, if the game is beautiful, it’s ugly, etc - ‘Das ist Fußball’ is a phrase that works everywhere.”
In English, the colloquial equivalent might be ‘Classic footie!’.
As a historian specialising in football, what is your favourite German footballing word and why?
“One of the phrases I like most in German is Fußballgott (Football god) because it is the irony phrase,” says Christoph. “A shot only millimetres left or right of the goal post could decide if you lose or win.”
So, if your favourite team scores an unbelievable winning goal, you can say, “Der Fußballgott war auf unser Seite”: A typical phrase meaning luck was on our side, and the player who scored is your Fußballgott.
“But watching the game, everyone is equal… from every country, no matter what language you speak.”
Improve your German on home turf with BBC Bitesize.
This article was published in June 2024.
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