The Language of Football: Part 6

Converted

As in, “Berbatov stepped up and coolly converted the penalty.”

A term wilfully appropriated from rugby (as opposed to, presumably, american football), and transplanted with the subtlety of the proverbial ear upon a mouse’s back, onto a footballing incident.

Many other sports-based phrases have swum their way, salmon-like, upstream against the tide of good style to seed themselves within either the football lexicon, or everyday parlance: assist (from basketball), step up to the plate (baseball), throw in the towel (boxing), or under par (golf).

I suppose people know what it means and that it therefore serves its purpose, but where will this cross-pollination end…

Potential future developments:
“The goalkeeper was completely deceived by Beckham’s curveball free-kick.”
“That’s a delightful lob from Defoe – Advantage Pompey!”
“And here we see Cristiano Ronaldo, on the oche, about to take this penalty kick.”