Le foot-ball
The most common French soccer vocabulary words include le foot-ball (soccer), le joueur de foot (soccer player), l’équipe de foot (soccer team), le ballon de foot (soccer ball) and le terrain de foot. On this page you will find a comprehensive list of French football vocabulary including words for equipment and the various players on the field.
Soccer, called both “le foot-ball” and “le foot” is by far the most popular sport in France and is played thousands of people across the country. France has been a leader in soccer both in Europe and internationally as it hosted and won the FIFA World Cup in 1998.
Basic soccer vocabulary
- Soccer le football
- Soccer game le match de foot
People
- Soccer fan le fan de foot
- Soccer coach l’entraîneur de football
- Soccer player le footballeur, le joueur de football
- Soccer player (slang) le footeux
- Soccer team l’équipe de foot (f)
Positions
- Goalkeeper (goalie) le gardien de but
- Defense le défenseur
- Center forward l’avant centre
- Left wing l’alier gauche
- Right wing l’alier droit
- Left mid-fielder le milieu gauche
- Right mid-fielder le milieu droit
- Referee l’arbitre (m)
Equipment
- Soccer ball le ballon de football/foot
- Cleats les chaussures à crampons
- Soccer jersey le maillot de foot
- Soccer shorts le short de foot
- Shin guards les protège-tibias
The field
- Soccer field (pitch) le terrain de foot
- Goalpost le poteau
- Net le filet
- Crossbar la barre traversale
- Goal le but
- Central circle le cercle central
- Penalty area la surface de réparation
- Goal line la ligne de but
- Corner flag le drapeau de coin
The game
- Foul la faute
- Yellow card la carton jaune
- Extra time la prolongation
- Corner le corner
- Off-side l’hors jeu
- Draw, tie l’égalité
- Penalty le penalty
- Red card le carton rouge
- Send off l’expulsion
- Half time la mi-temps
Verbs
- to dribble dribbler
- to head the ball faire une tête
- to kick botter
- to pass (the ball) faire une passe
- to shoot (the ball) shooter
- to save (the ball) sauver
- to tackle tacler
- to score a goal marquer un but
- free kick faire un coup franc
Other
- Soccer practice l’entraînement de foot (m)
- Soccer stadium le stade de foot
- FIFA la Fédération Internationale de Football Association
- Soccer World Cup la Coupe du Monde de Football
- Soccer news l’actualité du football
Related lessons:
French vocabulary | Word of the day | Lessons by David Issokson
