from “clasico” to “golfico”, diving into the nicknames of football matches

“In Newcastle, PSG will experience a new “golfico” in the Champions League”, title The Team in his article presenting the match on Wednesday October 4. And a new poster nickname, one! Since the appearance of the “clasico” in the 2000s, the inventiveness of the football world in naming football matches has been inexhaustible.

How distant it seems, the time when each shock was simply called “derby”, from the name of the Earl of Derby, which financed the annual horse race in Epsom, England. This is how the “Ruhr derby” (or Revierderby) between Borussia Dortmund and Schalke 04, in Germany, or the “Rhonalpine derby” between AS Saint-Etienne and Olympique Lyonnais, in France. But the language of football underwent a Spanish shift in the 2010s.

A communication stunt signed Canal+

The encrypted channel Canal+ has built the success of its paid football offering on the emerging rivalry between Olympique de Marseille and Paris Saint-Germain, which offers it its best audiences and constitutes a loss leader. In the fall of 2006, the clash between Parisians and Marseillais is qualified for the first time on the air of “classic”.

“Spanish is Latin, a little sexier: it connotes something nice, hot, a South American atmosphere”underlines Médéric Gasquet-Cyrus, lecturer in sociolinguistics at Aix-Marseille University and co-author ofRight in the skylight! 200 legendary expressions, words and anecdotes about football (Le Robert, 2022).

It is also an opportunity for Canal+ to sanctify the flagship match of the Ligue 1 championship, for which the encrypted channel has just secured the television rights for a record amount. His model? The most media poster of the Spanish championship, already known in France: the classic between Real Madrid and FC Barcelona.

Local “classicos”

Feeding off the rivalry between Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, the duel between the Castilian and Catalan clubs emerged in the 2010s as the biggest rivalry in modern football. It is broadcast in one hundred and fifty countries and its nickname is exported: we see the appearance of the “klassiker” in Germany, the “Californian” or “Cali Clasico” in the United States, or the Congolese, Ukrainian or even Algerian “Clasico”.

French football declines the concept in Ligue 1. Thus appears in 2010 the “olympico”, between Olympique de Marseille and Olympique Lyonnais, or the “celtico”, trademark registered by En avant de Guingamp and Stade Rennais. “We rename to spice things up and add packaging, analyzes Médéric Gasquet-Cyrus. Modern football needs to regenerate old rivalries to sell advertising space and TV subscriptions. »

In a more informal way, the duel between the two main clubs on the Atlantic coast, FC Nantes and the Girondins de Bordeaux, became the “Atlantico”. Even the good old Northern derby between Lille and Lens, more than a century old, is sometimes renamed the “nordico”, including by its actors. More unexpectedly, the “synthetico” (Lorient-Nancy) refers to the only two clubs playing on artificial turf.

Regional or sports newspapers are following in the footsteps of television and clubs. They compete in creativity, inventing the predictable “corsico” (Bastia-Ajaccio) and “alpico” (Grenoble-Annecy), as well as the more acrobatic “bourgognico” (Dijon-AJ Auxerre) and “pays-de-la-Loirico” ( Angers-Nantes). “We are in a saturation of football and big posters. We need to rediscover a more rural, more rural pleasure, and we are returning a little to the local side of football,” believes Médéric Gasquet-Cyrus. Even if it means turning into cacophony, when the “chtico” is proposed for both Lens-Lille and Lille-Valenciennes (beware of “quiproco”).

Squeaky pun race

Quirky media and facetious Internet users get in on the fun. Thus are born the “bièrico” (Strasbourg-Lille) and “saucissico” (Strasbourg-Frankfurt) teasing. As for the clashes between dead last in the championshipor between historic clubs in crisis, they are mercilessly renamed “nullico”. The humorous character is increasingly assumed. In 2016, France Bleu Lorraine organized an online survey to christen the Lorraine derby between Nancy and Metz. Among the proposals: “quichico”, “mirabellico” or even “n’t forget-your-knitting”.

These pranks also sometimes carry charges against football business. From 2013, a reader of Provence suggests with a certain bitterness to nickname PSG-Monaco the “millionico”. Sports media highlight the issues hidden behind certain matches. The Manchester City-Paris Saint-Germain, a duel between two club-states, respectively owned by the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, thus becomes the “petrolico”, or even the “golfico”. “We’re emphasizing something more grating”, notes Médéric Gasquet-Cyrus. A way, implicitly, of recalling the lost working-class roots of football. “These diverted references mark a return to a more popular side. » A sort of “revanchico”.