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REPORTAJE ESPECIAL | FÚTBOL

Gooooooool! – You can’t watch Fútbol in English!

The Latin American passion for Futbol is expressed by anchors and sportscasters using a special language connecting with their audience’s roots and desires. Fútbol needs to be watched in Spanish.

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Gooooooool! – You can’t watch Fútbol in English!

Passion. Emotion. Excitement. Paralyzed towns, cities, countries. Millions and millions of people in front of the TV screen, crying, praying, dreaming. The dances, the screaming, the joy, the colors and the fireworks. Fútbol is a unique passion, bringing down walls and borders, prejudices and anger. And nobody embody this passion more than Latinos, who are typically soulful, carnavalesque, devoted. There is fire in our souls and sparks in our blood. Fútbol fits the Latino soul, due to the essence of the game, its’ symbols, its’ universality and ease of play, and the explosiveness of goals. Fútbol is an escape valve, freedom of speech, a treasure for Latino culture. The historian Stefan Rinke explained that Fútbol had a predominant role in the urbanization and integration of Latin American societies entering the 20th Century. Fútbol meant an opportunity for a better life, always had an aspirational connotation. Fútbol meant emancipation and hope.

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Miguel Tovar

Because of that, Fútbol connects with deep vestiges of Latino soul. That is the reason why futbol voices on the radio in the early days of the game contributed not only to the expansion of Fútbol, but to the construction of a new society, its memories, its rituals, its myths. And the torch of this ancient and priceless oral tradition has passed through generations. Deep voices, a torrential rhythm, imagination, metaphors, folk expressions and a long-climatic-sustained goal chant, the signature of any Latin narration.

English Fútbol narrators lacks Latino passion, the keywords that connect with people’s memories, dreams and sorrows, phrases that only in Spanish could give the whole game a different meaning. More intense, passionate, rather than scientific, academic- statistics without substance and soul. Miguel Gurwitz, Telemundo’s anchor who was born and raised in Mexico, argues: “Latinos find the perfect link for connecting with their roots. Latinos carry on love story with Fútbol (…) Fútbol in Spanish is far better because, even when it's a sport invented by Englishmen, it was perfected by Latinos. No one has more colour than us. Fútbol in spanish is capable of communicating authentic feelings, although in english there is only a transmission of facts (a modest-minimalistic style called ‘play-by-play’)”.

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Getty Images

Carlos Hermosillo, former Fútbol player, Mexican Cruz Azul legend and second top-scorer in Liga MX history, currently working for Telemundo, agrees with Gurwitz's point of view: “We (Latinos) were born and live for Fútbol. We love and breathe Futbol”. A mechanical description of events will never overtake a deep-long ‘gooooool’. Argentinian born Andrés Cantor remembers that, during FIFA World Cup in 1994 held in the USA, both the English speaking media and audiences became interested in his narration style due to his rhythm and the climatic scoring call, which is a whole tradition in Latin American countries since the 30’s. They had never heard anythin like it before. He even performed his in-game chant in a David Letterman show, enthusing people not used to Fútbol or Latin American narrations: “Back then, I was very happy for helping Fútbol popularization, a game that was always pushed aside in the US”, Cantor told AS USA. In the 90’s, English speakers already knew that Fútbol was more exciting to watch in Spanish. And that is the truth.

Gooooooool! – You can’t watch Fútbol in English!

Spanish brief glossary for understanding Fútbol

Golazo – A goal gifted with aesthetic beauty: a long shot, a volley shot, an impossible shot that made the striker force himself to the limit of his capacities. Paradón – A great save by the goalkeeper. Gambeta – Dribble Hacer la cama – A Group of players conspiracy against a sole player or the head coach. No le hace un gol ni al arcoiris – Bad aim Hincha – fan Partidazo – A great game Cambio de juego: long pass from one side of the pitch to another ¡La que se comió! – The striker missed a clear opportunity Caño-túnel – Passing the ball beetween the legs of a rival Rifarse el físico – To be envolved in a dangerous play Goooooooool – goal (in case it wasn’t clear enough)