What's the story w/ football (soccer) nicknames?

August 25, 2008 11:23 AM

What is the best online essay available for history, anecdotes, methodologies, etc. for the Brazilian (and elsewhere, to be sure) footballer practice of going by a single-word nickname?
posted by boombot to sports, hobbies, & recreation (7 comments total)

As I recall, it's not a footballer thing so much as it is a Brazilian thing. It's common even in politics.
posted by smitt at 11:28 AM on August 25, 2008

More about it from this article.
posted by smitt at 11:30 AM on August 25, 2008

yeah, it's totally not exclusive to soccer
posted by matteo at 11:42 AM on August 25, 2008

Why Ronaldhino has no last name
posted by palindromic at 11:47 AM on August 25, 2008

As I Brazilian, I think I can explain how this happens. Most of us as kids are quickly awarded with a nickname, usually some form of mockery about our looks. Ronaldinho's name is Ronaldo, but as he used to be very thin and small, instantly got nicknamed as "Ronaldinho", which means "little Ronaldo".

Garrincha, one of the greatest players, was called this way after a similar bird which has bent legs. Kaka is a short for "Ricardo". Pelé got his nickname because he as a kid wanted to be like "Bilé", a former Santos goalkeeper, but he couldn't say the guy's name correctly. His former nickname was "gasoline" because he could run like hell.

Summarizing, we Brazilians are very informal, rarely call somebody by his/her last name and resort to nicknames very often. That's why footballers get theirs.

If you take a look at other Brazilian sportsmen, you'll see the same pattern over and over. The women's volleyball team (gold @ Beijing olympics) is a very good example.
posted by dcrocha at 12:27 PM on August 25, 2008

So, do Spanish and Portugese footballers also have cultural reasons to use the nickname, or have they taken their cue from the footballers embodying this part of the larger Brazilian culture?
posted by boombot at 1:26 PM on August 25, 2008

Well, there's an expressive number of football players in Europe that come from Brazil. Can you give examples?
posted by falameufilho at 8:54 PM on August 31, 2008