Gunners, Rossoneri, La Blaugrana??? Wha??? If you’re new in following the Champions League or European Football in general, you’ve probably heard of these words before. Other than their official club title, teams also have other names their fans (or critics) call them by. Some names are pretty easy to figure out which team it’s referreing to (jersey colors) while some are a bit harder to guess. So here’s a guide to the major football club nicknames in Europe:
AC Milan
Rossoneri (The Red and Blacks/Red Blacks): obviously, because of their jersey color
Il Diavolo (The Devil): because the club’s logo used to be an image of a red devil with a Golden Star for Sport Excellence located next to it.
Tottenham Hotspur
Spurs: This one is also obvious, spurs because it’s a shortcut of hotspur :P
Cockerels: because their logo is a fighting cockerel on a ball
Lilywhites: because of their jersey colors
Yids or Yiddos: this usually refers to the fans of the team, generally used by the rival Arsenal fans, it’s more derogatory in nature because of the large Jewish population (their language is Yiddish) in the Haringey/Stamford Hill area.
Valencia
Los Ches: Xe or Che is a widely used interjection that expresses protest, surprise or exasperation, which is one of the symbols of the Valencian identity, hence they are called the Xe Team or Los Ches.
Els Taronja (The Orange): from their jersey color when the play away games
Valencianistas: is pretty much self-explanatory
Los Pulos
Xotos
FC Schalke 04
Arsenal: The Gunners or Gooners
What are stored in an arsenal? Yup, you got it—guns. Therefore, The Gunners
FC Barcelona (the team name is sometimes shortened to Barca)
La Blaugrana (The Blue Scarlets): because of jersey colors, the fans are called Blaugranes
Los Culés or Culers (The bottoms): this is usually used to call the fans of Barca. Culs means arse or a** in english, and the spectators/fans in the 1st stadium (Camp de la Indústria) sat with their culs over the stand
AS Roma:
Giallorossi (The Yellow and Reds/Yellow-Reds): these are the colors of their old jersey
I Lupi (The Wolves): from the wolves found in their logo/badge (female wolf with the two infant brothers)
La Maggica (The Magic One):
Shakhtar Donetsk
Gornyaki (The Miners): When the club was formed, it was originally called Stakhanovets which means they are part of the Stakhanovite movement derived from Aleksei Stakhanov, a coal-miner in the Donets basin. Kroty (The Moles):
Olympique Lyonnaise: they are sometimes simply called Lyon Les Gones (The Boys or The Kids): can’t find anything about this, only that Gones is the regional dialect word for kids
OL: initials of the club’s name
Los Galácticos (The Galactics or superstars or from the “galaxy of the stars): this actually used to call the expensive and world-famous players the club signed. This term was used during time of Florentino Pérez, then club president, who implemented this policy of signing or purchasing at least one galáctico or superstar player in the summer of every year (which started with Figo, Zidane, Ronaldo and Beckham). Galactico can be used to refer to the transfer policy or the player bought under this policy. The idea was to form a team of superstars to make them an unbeatable club (however, it kinda backfired as the galactics grew massive egos and stopped training. Now most of the original galactics have left, so I dunno if you can still call them this. Barca seems to fit this description now)
Los Merengues (The Meringues): their jersey resembled the spanish food/dessert meringue
Los Blancos (The Whites) because of their jersey color
Kobenhavn:
The Pensioners: This was because of the war veterans, well-known pensioners, living in a nearby hospital
The Blues: because of their jersey color
Der FCB (The FCB): dunno if this has something to do with partnership of Paul Breitner and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge on the pitch, which was called FC Breitnigge (FCB), who led the team to Bundesliga titles in 1980 and 1981
Die Roten (The Reds): because of their jersey colors
FC Hollywood (Hollywood Football Club): there was a time in the 90s when Bayern's players were frequent tabloid fodders, always appearing in the gossip pages instead of the sports pages, so they earned the nickname FC Hollywood
Olympique Marseille: L'OM, meaning The OM
Is this based on the club’s initials? Hhhmmmm…
Manchester United: Red Devils Apparently, they chose devils because they liked it, so they incorporated a devil into the club badge and... their jersey color is red.
