Make New Friends Through Sports: Fútbol vs. Football

While traveling or living abroad, learning the ins and outs of the local sports culture is a common and rewarding cultural experience. If you’re getting ready to experience life in Latin America, learn about the local sports scene to help improve your conversations with others and make new friends! 

In Latin America, fútbol is by far the most popular sport we play. However, American Football has carved its niche amongst some Latinoamericanos, and the Super Bowl has become popular enough to be broadcasted—with the famous ads and everything. 

If that’s not proof enough that we enjoy the Super Bowl ourselves, take a look at this year’s halftime show! Los Tigres del Norte, a Mexican mariachi band, are going to be playing alongside Shakira and Jennifer Lopez; all three groups have connections to Spanish speaking countries!

Knowing Spanish vocabulary for both fútbol and football is a great way to connect with Spanish speakers at home or during your travels, so today we’re going to look at some useful vocabulary as well as similarities between both sports.

How Are Football and Soccer Alike?

You already know that football and fútbol are different sports, but how are they similar? 

Fascinating Rivalries

For starters, they share infamous rivalries. You might be familiar with the rivalry between the Packers and Bears; but did you know fútbol has a rivalry that is so strong that their games attract millions of international followers? Real Madrid vs. FC Barcelona have been playing against each other for over 100 years! You can read more about this in our post about famous fútbol teams.

Colorful Fandoms

Another similarity between sports is the fans. Fútbol games have no shortage of colorful guests. Fans will often paint their bodies to match the team they’re rooting for and will carry huge flags to represent their team or their country. One of the reasons I like the Green Bay Packers so much is because I went to a Super Bowl party with people from Wisconsin some years ago when they won. If you go to a soccer fans’ house and share some chips while watching a game, you’ll have a new favorite team, and hopefully learn some new words along the way!

Big Events

The Super Bowl is one of USA’s biggest sporting events. Each year, the viewership reachers over 100 million, and they have billion-dollar revenues! The World Cup is no different. While the World Cup has substantially more viewers, it usually makes less money than the Super Bowl. Both sports have big events that bring people together in restaurants, homes, and stadiums all over the world! In Guatemala, it’s common for families to buy the World Cup sticker album every time the event takes place, and you’ll see people selling and trading stickers everywhere you go.

Community Building

Sports have always played a big role in children’s development. Playing team based sports like football and fútbol can teach kids about sportsmanship, teamwork, and healthy lifestyle!

Football Vocabulary

One of the most difficult things to learn about football is all of the vocabulary. There are so many terms to keep track of, it sure takes time to learn all of them! If you’ve spoken Spanish with people from different countries, you’ll notice we have a sort of “dialect” where we use different words based on where we come from. Football is no different. Some countries will use English terms, some Spanish, and some will do “Spanglish”. The vocabulary we’ll review today talks about the official terms, but don’t be surprised if you learn a new way to say a word presented below.

If you want to teach football rules to a Spanish speaker, these words are a must!

Vocabulario de Fútbol

Now that you can explain to your friends what’s going on in the football field, it’s time to learn some fútbol vocabulary!

Shared Vocabulary

These two sports are similar in more ways than one. They share some terms that apply to either sport; you can also use them to describe other sports! Can you guess which other sports have these general terms in them? You’ll find the following words in both football and fútbol:

Get Ready To Root For Your Team!

Sporting events have been a primary form of entertainment for as long as we’ve existed. When done right, sports bring people together and relieve stress while having fun. It’s no surprise this is one of the best ways to connect with other cultures, so much so that in modern times we play sports together throughout the whole planet. If you want to put what we learned here today into practice, you can take a free class at Homeschool Spanish Academy and ask a Guatemalan what their favorite sport is!

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Rafael Parra

Freelance Writer at Homeschool Spanish Academy

A native Spanish speaker from Guatemala, I'm a psychology student, creative developer, and aspiring polymath who's always learning new things and improving as a person. I'm a nerd when it comes to language, education, and videogames. My goal is to practice all these disciplines in unison and make something great with my time.

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