In this section we feature football jokes, quotes and strange but true stories.
The flea can jump 350 times its body length. It’s like a human jumping the length of a football field.
Soccer Origin
The word soccer is derived from an abbreviation of association as in – Association Football. In 1890 it was spelt variously as socca and socker. One day Charles Wreford-Brown was leaving his digs, dressed in sporting togs, when his friend enquired ‘ where are you off?’ I’m off to play football’ Charles said.
‘Association or Rugger’ the friend asked. ‘Why Soccer of course’, said Charles Wreford-Brown as jogged off to the game.
Bear in mind that in this era upper class sportsman had a fad of adding ‘er’ to everything. Rugby became rugger and socca became soccer. Incidentally, my favourite example of this patois is Pragger Wagger, a slang word for the Prince of Wales (Later Edward VII).
Players Quotes
‘ I’ve had 14 bookings this season – 8 of which were my fault, but 9 of which were disputable. ‘ Paul Gascoigne
‘I can see the carrot at the end of the tunnel. ‘ Stuart Pearce
‘ I’d like to play for an Italian club, like Barcelona. ‘ Mark Draper
‘ If you don’t concede any goals you’ ll win more games than you lose. ‘ Wayne Bridge
‘ I’ve never had major knee surgery on any other part of my body’ (Winston Bennett)
Footballer’s Nicknames
Franz Beckenbauer = The Kaiser (Led West Germany and Bayern Munich to many triumphs. A skilful and thoughtful player)
Stuart Pearce = Psycho (Would run through a brick wall for his team)
Commentary to look out for
- ‘ He dribbles a lot and the opposition don’t like it – you can see it all over their faces’ – Ron Atkinson
- When Ian Rush transferred from Chester to Liverpool he said, ‘It was like moving to a foreign country’. People only took notice of Ian’s views when he said a similar thing after he moved from Liverpool to Juventus. ‘I could not settle, it was like being in a foreign country’.
- ‘ Hodge scored for Forest after 22 seconds – totally against the run of play’ (Peter Lorenzo)
- ‘ What will you do when you leave football, Jack – will you stay in football?’ STUART HALL, Radio 5 Live
