Nutmeg (football)

A nutmeg (or tunnel) is a technique used in football or field hockey, in which a player rolls the ball through an opponent's legs. This can be whilst passing to another player, shooting or occasionally to carry on and retrieve it themselves.

Origin

The origins of the word are a point of debate. An early use is in the novel A bad lot‎ by Brian Glanville (1977).^[1] According to Alex Leith's book Over the Moon, Brian - The Language of Football,^[2] "nuts refers to the testicles of the player through whose legs the ball has been passed and nutmeg is just a development from this". The use of the word nutmeg to mean leg in Cockney rhyming slang has also been put forward as an explanation.^{[citation needed]} The most likely source, however, was postulated by Peter Seddon in his book "Football Talk - The Language And Folklore Of The World's Greatest Game".^[3] The word arose because of a sharp practice used in nutmeg exports between America and England. "Nutmegs were such a valuable commodity that unscrupulous exporters were to pull a fast one by mixing a helping of wooden replicas into the sacks being shipped to England," writes Seddon. "Being nutmegged soon came to imply stupidity on the part of the duped victim and cleverness on the part of the trickster." It soon caught on in football, implying that the player whose legs the ball had been played through had been tricked, or, nutmegged.

There may be some basis in this story in that unscrupulous New England settlers apparently sold wooden nutmeg and cucumber seeds to native Americans.^[4]

Further reading

• "The Nutmeg dribbling trick". Expert Football. http://www.expertfootball.com/training/dribbling_nutmeg.php. Retrieved 2005-12-20.  — stills of a player executing a nutmeg, demonstrating the trick of pulling the ball back in order to force the defender to open his legs. Also it is widely regarded as coming from Tony Nutmeg, who used to put the ball through the opponents legs and shouted his surname as an insult when he went past. This developed on the terraces and became a school yard jibe or insult. Tony Nutmeg (Leeds United. 1912-1923) See also, Tony Yeboa.
• "Nutmeg earns O'Shea praise". Manchester United. 2003-04-26. http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/sport/football/manchesterunited/s/57/57169_nutmeg_earns_oshea_praise.html.  — John O'Shea's nutmeg on Luís Figo
• "Finishing and Scoring". Expert Football. http://www.expertfootball.com/training/finishing.php. Retrieved 2005-12-20.  — A well-positioned goalkeeper may be vulnerable to a nutmeg.

References

1. ^ Page 57 "He nutmegged him ! ' 'He did,' said Peter Bailey, wonderingly, 'he did. A proper nutmeg.' What Jack had done, in fact, was to slip the ball between the legs.."
2. ^ Alex Leith Over the Moon, Brian - The Language of Football
3. ^ Peter Seddon "Football Talk - The Language And Folklore Of The World's Greatest Game"
4. ^ Forum, Volume 67‎ p105 1922

1. Ingle, Sean (2005-09-07). "Where does the term nutmeg come from - the final word". The Knowledge (London: The Guardian). http://football.guardian.co.uk/theknowledge/story/0,13854,1564103,00.html. Retrieved 2006-08-01. 

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