https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6875571/2025/12/14/football-word-of-the-year-premier-league-mourinho-guardiola-muller-messi/

From 2000 to 2025, Football Words of the Year: Parking the Bus, Raumdeuter, and the Prawn Sandwich Brigade By Michael Cox, December 14, 2025

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Football pundits often stir up controversy by criticizing the 'new jargon' that's popped up over recent years. Accusations usually follow that managers or journalists have 'swallowed a dictionary' or even 'swallowed a whole laptop.' Pundits often get tied up trying to explain that the same phenomena were called something different in the old days, arguing that new words aren't necessary (usually they just prove the necessity of the new word by trying to explain one term using five different words). However, football terminology is always evolving. Records from the mid-20th century show annoyed reactions to the creeping use of the word 'striker.' The term 'midfielder' was only accepted by some publications relatively recently (because 'midfield' isn't a verb, you couldn't attach '-er' like you can to attack or defend). Even the concepts of red and yellow cards were once controversial, with some magazines specifically referring to them as 'discs.' Ultimately, the evolution of football language is linked to the evolution of the evolution of the game itself. The new terms that have emerged over the past 25 years show just how much more scientific, technical, and tactical football has become. Maybe what the pundits are really complaining about isn't the vocabulary itself, but the changes in the game. Since the Oxford English Dictionary chose 'ragebait' as its Word of the Year for 2025, let's look at the football equivalent terms for the 21st century. The words don't necessarily have to have been invented that year (though it helps if they popped up suddenly), but they must have been popularized and spread widely during that time.