World Cup Blog
World
World Cup Blog
World Cup 2010 Team Nicknames
Comments(51)
It’s time we started getting to know the 32 teams who will compete at World Cup 2010, and what better way to get familiar than with a nickname? Below you’ll find a list of the 32 teams, followed by their most common nickname or nicknames.
Team nicknames usually refer to the colour of the shirt (eg the Azzurri or Les Bleus) or some element of the football association crest (eg The Three Lions). Others are a bit more imaginative (eg The Desert Foxes) and some refer specifically to recent events (eg The Pirate Ship and Olsen’s Eleven). Some may surprise you. Until very very recently I genuinely thought that everyone in Germany referred to the national team as Die Mannschaft. But then I read Jan’s post here and learned that wasn’t true.
For one or two teams below I was either unable to find a translation or explanation for the team nickname (why are Slovakia called the Repre, why are Greece referred to as the Galanoleyki?) or unable to find any nickname at all (looking at you Slovenia). So feedback, corrections and suggestions are all welcome in the comments.
Support your team and buy their World Cup 2010 jersey.
Algeria – Les Fennecs (The Desert Foxes)
Argentina – Albicelestes (White and Sky blue)
Australia – Socceroos
Brazil – Seleção (The Selection). Also Canarinhos (Little Canary) and Verde e Amarelo (Green and Yellow).
Cameroon – Lions Indomptables (Indomitable Lions)
Chile – La Roja (The Red)
Cote d’Ivoire – Les Éléphants (The Elephants)
Denmark – Olsens Elleve (Olsen’s Eleven) – In honour of popular head coach Morten Olsen.
England – The Three Lions – From the FA crest.
France – Les Bleus (The Blues)
Germany – National Mannschaft (National Team) or DFB Elf (DFB Eleven) or National Elf (National Eleven). The nickname Die Mannschaft (the team) is only used by non-German media.
Ghana – The Black Stars
Greece – To Piratiko (The Pirate Ship) – Since Euro 2004. But another common nickname is apparently Galanoleyki, though I have no idea what that means.
Honduras – Los Catrachos which is apparently how other Central Americans refer to Hondurans. Also La H (The H) – The crest is a large H, which looks extremely cool on the shirt..
Italy – Azzurri (Sky Blues)
Japan – Blue Samurai
Mexico – El Tri (after the three colours or “tricolor” on the Mexican flag).
Netherlands – Oranje
North Korea – Chollima (some sort of mythical horse)
New Zealand – All Whites (rugby union team are the All Blacks)
Nigeria – Super Eagles
Paraguay – La Albirroja (The White-Red) or Guaraní (an indigenous people)
Portugal – Selecção das Quinas (Team of the Five Shields) – Referring to the five shields on the FA crest. I think.
Serbia – Beli Orlovi (White Eagles) – Referring to the white double headed eagle on the Serbia coat of arms.
Slovakia – Repre (at least according to Wikipedia, but there’s no explanation as to what this means).
Slovenia – Zmajceki (Dragons) – Because there’s a dragon on the crest of capital city Ljubljana.
South Africa – Bafana Bafana (The Boys)
South Korea – Taeguk Warriors. Fans are often called The Red Devils.
Spain – La Furia Roja (Red Fury)
Switzerland – Schweizer Nati
United States – Often referred to as the MNT (Men’s National Team) or The Yanks.
Uruguay – La Celeste (The Sky Blue)
Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 51 comments.
Read the rest of the comments
*stick* not “still”…
Posted from 
Australia
I am not sure if it was already mentioned. Greece has that nickname because of the color of our flag. Blue and white. Galano translates to blue. Leuko translates to white. Galano-leukoi. Blue-white.
The US needs a better nickname. MNT is really lame.
Posted from 
United States
Shouldn’t the USMNT be called the Yank’s…like always?
Posted from United States
The US is not simply “MNT”! While I refer to the Men’s National Team formally, the most common nickname I use and hear is “The Yanks”.
Wikipedia has a decent, but incomplete, listing of nicknames:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_national_football_(soccer)_teams_by_nickname
Posted from United States
“I think Brazil have another nickname. Cariocas (or something like that).”
No, Cariocas are called the residents of Rio de Janeiro (city).
But yes, ‘Seleção Canarinho’ is one nickname, though we almost don’t use it anymore, it was more popular in the 70s. We mostly call our nt simply ‘A Seleção’ (as in the article – The Selection).
I’m not sure if its an official nickname but the Slovenian team are called Zmajceki (Dragons) in all former Yugoslavian republics.
Posted from United States
New Zealand should just be the ‘all blacks’ like in rugby – http://www.africa.com
Posted from United States
‘all whites’ for new zealand just doesn’t sound right and isn’t intimidating, not that soccer has anything to do with intimidation. But I’d still go over the historical ‘all blacks’ over ‘all whites’
Posted from United States
I always refer the the Stars and Stripes as the “Nats” and the U-17’s as the “Baby Nats” and have never heard any other nickname. Yanks would be like the German nickname that is only used by others – a yank or yankee is a northerner in the south and a New Englander in the north which includes New York State btw – hence yankee beans, the NY Yankees (baseball) or the defunct Boston Yankees football (gridiron) team.
Posted from United States
Los Catrachos for Honduras, nickname for their general’s men who came back victorious in a minor battle when some pro-slavery Americans came down to re-establish plantations in Honduras. A nice history lesson.
Thanks all. Have made a few updates and corrections to the list based on the great response in the comments.
For Brazil, doesn’t “Verde e Amarelo” mean “Green and Yellow” rather than “Gold and Yellow”. In any case, that would refer more to the flag than the strip, which is yellow and blue… Maybe one of the brazilian posters would care to explain further.
Posted from Australia
Azzurri is ’sky blue’ blu is blue- in Italian. Or, basically, the Sky-Blues. FORZA AZZURRI- fyi
Posted from United States
@essence,
You’re correct, it does mean “green and yellow”. The “gold and yellow” was a lazy typo on my part. It’s been corrected.
@Al,
I wasn’t sure which it was, but have since changed it to Sky Blue.
okay USA fans thanks for dropping the ball….the usa fans are called Sam’s Army….bcuz they often dress as uncle sam and because the fan contingent is heavily US soldiers when we play overseas….the team is also sometimes refered to by this same name. the rest of the world calls us the yanks the press uses MNT. But we fans mostly just call them USA or team USA.
Posted from United States
Uruguay is called “los charruas” when playing in South America although generally world-wide they get called “La celeste”.
i think ghana’s nickname is almighty stars
Posted from 
United Kingdom
if you want tickets to the events in south africa next year, put in for your tickets now. i’ve heard that over 500,000 tickets have already been sold. dont miss out on your chance. for die-hard football fans only.
For Switzerland also Rossocrociati in italian, it means red with a cross; in french is la Nati.
I would say that even though the Italian National Team is always called “Gli Azzurri”, they are more popularly referred to by the Italian media as “La Nazionale” (the National Team). The Azzurri are the players, while the Nazionale is the team itself, if that makes sense. Like an article will say “Here are the 23 Azzurri called up to the Nazionale”.
Mexico is also known locally as “La Selección” (The Selection).
Argentina is also called “La Albiceleste” both in South America and by Argentinians themselves.
As for Germany, it should read “Nationalmannschaft”, it’s a single word.
Honduras are also called La Bicolor a lot as well.
Posted from United States
For Greece galanoleyki comes from our flag colours.Galano=blue and leyki=white
COUNTRY HEADLINES
CATEGORIES & ARCHIVES
Hmm let’s see.. Footballroos & All Races. No thanks, I’ll still to Socceroos and All Whites thanks.
Posted from
Australia