With NatWest Premier, you have financial experts in your corner, as well as everyday support on the phone 24-7. We could help you grow and protect your family's wealth with tailored advice from our expert financial planners, plus all investments are managed by COOTS. Now for the really important decisions. More slopes or the sauna. You can, with Premier. NatWest Premier. Tomorrow begins today. UK Residence 18+, Premier eligibility criteria apply. Specific eligibility and fees apply for financial planning. Your capital is at risk. Hola hola, como estamos? Soy Pablo, de Coffee Break Spanish, y hoy vamos a hablar de fútbol. Fútbol or soccer, if you prefer. Así que get ready because you are going to learn the vocabulary and phrases you actually need to talk about football in Spanish. Vamos allá. To begin, let's imagine we are arriving at a football match. So the first thing we would do is we actually walk into El Estadio, that's the stadium. You can also say El Campo de Football, though this refers more to the pitch itself. And I'm thinking of another word for pitch, which is La Cancha. I really like this one. And it's more used in Latin American Spanish, but it's again the same pitch. Perfecto. ¿Qué más? Ah, the people attending, very important, are los hinchas o los aficionados, the fans. And you can also use la afición for the fan base as a whole. What else? On the pitch, of course, we have los jugadores, or you can also say los fútbolistas, these are fútbolers. On the side tendremos, we will have El Entrenador, that's the coach, which normally is super stress, of course. And somewhere in the middle, trying to keep order of everything, we have El Árbitro, the referee. As a trying, because as you well know, the fans will probably have strong opinions on his decisions. Vale, vamos a hablar un poquito de las posiciones de los jugadores, just the essentials. So first of all, in goal we got El Portero, and that's the goalkeeper. And let me tell you something, commentators actually love saying El Guardameta for goalkeeper as well. And this is literally the guardian of the goal. Then we have El Defensa, this is an easy one, the defender. And in midfield, El Centro Campista, or you can also say El Medio Centro midfielder. And of course, Afron, we'll see El Delantero, which is the forward or the striker. Now a question for you, do you know how we call the player that has scored the most goals at the end of the season? We call that player El Picicci. And basically Picicci was the nickname of a famous Basque player from the, I think early 1910s. And Picicci basically became a synonym for top scorer, Picicci. Now let's get into the real phrases you may hear and that you could use while watching a football match. Veamos las. So imagine your team are playing well and all of a sudden there is a great ball through the midfield. You can say que pase or menudo pase, which is something like what a pass, that is a good pass. Then the ball could come in from the white and you would say buen centro, buen centro and that is good cross. And then goal or something like that, if I were actually, of course, watching my team at celebrate properly, of course. And after a goal, you can also use this one. Que golazo. And really interesting because notice here we are adding the suffix azo to goal, which makes it more intense. It's like saying what a great goal. Muy bien. And of course talking about golazos. I still remember Iniesta's golazo, of course, in the World Cup final in 2010 when Spain won against the Netherlands in the extra time. I remember there was a public viewing with a giant screen in a wist square in my town and it was just amazing. I think I will never forget that night, trust me. Vale, pues el partido sigue and a few minutes later someone goes down but very dramatically, possibly too dramatically. Then you could say se ha tirado or se tiro and this is he dived or he faked a foul. And there's also another expression for when a player is faking a foul, which is un piscinazo. You probably recognize the word piscina in it, which means swimming pool. But actually here the suffix azo changes the meaning to a big dive. And as you well know, some players have generally missed their calling as swimmers. Now el árbitro, the referee, has a decision to make. If he gives the foul and you actually disagree, you are going to say árbitro es una es falta, which would translate as referir, that is not a foul. And if you are a jester, it's even better. Now if the tackle was actually harsh, you can say que entrada más dura, which is something like what a tough tackle. After this, if a card comes out, it could be una tarjeta amarilla, a yellow card, or una tarjeta roja, a red card. And if for some reason the referee hasn't shown a card, but you actually believe that that player should be booked, you can say eso es una tarjeta como una catedral, which I love this one, which means that's a card the size of a cathedral, or how is that not a card. And as you can see with Spanish speakers, don't do small comparisons. And then after the foul, la falta comes a free kick. And this is tiro libre, or you can also say saque de falta, you can choose. At some point there might also be a corner. And very interestingly, we actually use the word corner in Spanish, a salon word from English of course, but the proper equivalent is un saque de esquina, literally a kick from the corner. And if the referee has missed it, you can say debería ser saque de esquina, that should be a corner. Now I want you to visualize or to picture this. The other team have scored, but the position of the player before the goal is a bit unclear. He could be offside. And how do we say offside in Spanish? Do you know? So you would say está en fuera de juego claramente, he's clearly offside. The good news is that this can be checked with el bar, of course. And that's not a bar I'm talking about, it's the VAR. And in Spanish this is a masculine noun, el bar, because it stands for el vídeo arbitraje, the video referee. And el bar can also be used to check a potential penalty. And a penalty is un penalti, or you can also say un penal, whatever you prefer. And when the decision that the referee has made goes against your team, we use this phrase. Que robo, what a roberi. And of course if you do the gesture even better, generally I would say this is one of the most versatile phrases in Spanish football, trust me. Muy bien, with el pitido final, the final whistle, it all comes down to three possible outcomes. So tu equipo gana, your team win, tu equipo pierde, your team lose, o el partido termina en empate, so the match ends in adro. But if it's a knockout match, this would lead to la prórroga. I love how this word sounds, la prórroga, which is extra time. And after that potentially we could have los penalties, the penalty shootout, which in my opinion is essentially organized collective suffering, so hopefully it doesn't get to that. Then after a great match, when you're commenting the actual game with someone else, you can say que partidazo, what a great match, what a big match. And see thatazo suffics again doing its thing. Or you could also say que partido más malo, if the game was well not great. Genial, now before finishing you need to know the question to ask any Spanish speaking football fan, which is de que equipo eres, de que equipo eres, which means which team do you support. Yo soy Del Valencia, in case you were wondering. Muy bien pues eso es todo, that's your football vocabulary essential in Spanish. Espero que te lo hayas pasado muy bien escuchando este episodio. It's been an absolute pleasure to talk to you about two of my passions, language learning and football. Hasta pronto y happy coffee breaking. Adios! You have been listening to a Coffee Break Languages production for the Radio Linguine Network. Copyright 2026, Radio Linguia Limited. Recording Copyright 2026, Radio Linguia Limited. All rights reserved. With NatWest Premier you have financial experts in your corner, as well as everyday support on the phone 24-7. We could help you grow and protect your family's wealth with tailored advice from our expert financial planners, plus all investments are managed by Coots. Now for the really important decisions, more slopes or the sauna. You can with Premier, NatWest Premier. Tomorrow begins today. UK Residents 18+, Premier eligibility criteria apply. Specific eligibility and fees apply for financial planning. Your capital is at risk.
