“In Newcastle, PSG will experience a new “golfico” in the Champions League”, headlines L’Equipe in its article presenting the match on Wednesday October 4. And a new poster nickname, one! Since the appearance of “clasico” in the 2000s, the inventiveness of the football world in naming football matches has been inexhaustible.
How long ago it seems, the days when each shock was simply called a “derby”, after the Earl of Derby, who financed the annual horse race in Epsom, England. Thus saw the light of day the “Ruhr derby” (or Revierderby) between Borussia Dortmund and Schalke 04, in Germany, or the “Rhonalpine derby” between AS Saint-Etienne and Olympique Lyonnais, in France. But the language of football underwent a Spanish shift in the 2010s.
A communication stunt signed Canal
The encrypted channel Canal has built the success of its paid football offering on the emerging rivalry between Olympique de Marseille and Paris Saint-Germain, which offers it its best audiences and constitutes a premium product. In the fall of 2006, the clash between Parisians and Marseillais was described on air as “clasico” for the first time.
“Spanish is Latin, a little sexier: it connotes something nice, hot, a South American atmosphere,” underlines Médéric Gasquet-Cyrus, lecturer in sociolinguistics at Aix-en-Provence University. Marseille and co-author of En plein dans la lucarne! 200 legendary expressions, words and anecdotes about football (Le Robert, 2022).
It is also an opportunity for Canal to sanctify the flagship match of the Ligue 1 championship, for which the encrypted channel has just secured the television rights for a record amount. His role model? The most publicized poster of the Spanish championship, already known in France: the clásico between Real Madrid and FC Barcelona.
Local “clasico”
Fueled by the rivalry between Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, the duel between the Castilian and Catalan clubs emerged in the 2010s as the biggest rivalry in modern football. It is broadcast in one hundred and fifty countries and its nickname is exported: we see the “klassiker” appear in Germany, the “Californian” or “cali clasico” in the United States, or the Congolese, Ukrainian or even Algerian “clasico”.
French football declined the concept in Ligue 1. Thus appeared in 2010 the “olympico”, between Olympique de Marseille and Olympique Lyonnais, or even the “celtico”, a trademark registered by En avant de Guingamp and Rennais Stadium. “We rename to spice things up and add packaging,” analyzes Médéric Gasquet-Cyrus. Modern football needs to regenerate old rivalries to sell advertising space and TV subscriptions. »
In a more informal way, the duel between the two main clubs on the Atlantic coast, FC Nantes and the Girondins de Bordeaux, becomes the “atlantico”. Even the good old Northern derby between Lille and Lens, more than a century old, is sometimes renamed the “Nordico”, including by its actors. More unexpectedly, the “synthético” (Lorient-Nancy) refers to the only two clubs playing on artificial turf.
Regional or sports newspapers are following in the footsteps of television and clubs. They compete in creativity, inventing the predictable “corsico” (Bastia-Ajaccio) and “alpico” (Grenoble-Annecy), as well as the more acrobatic “bourgognico” (Dijon-AJ Auxerre) and “pays-de-la-Loirico” ( Angers-Nantes). “We are in a saturation of football and big posters. We need to rediscover a more rural, more rural pleasure, and we are returning a little to the local side of football,” believes Médéric Gasquet-Cyrus. Even if it means turning into cacophony, when the “chtico” is proposed for both Lens-Lille and Lille-Valenciennes (beware of “quiproco”).
Squeaky pun race
Quirky media and facetious Internet users get in on the fun. Thus are born the teasing “bièrico” (Strasbourg-Lille) and “saucissico” (Strasbourg-Frankfurt). As for the clashes between bottom of the championship, or between historic clubs in crisis, they are mercilessly renamed “nullico”. The humorous character is increasingly assumed. In 2016, France Bleu Lorraine organized an online survey to name the Lorraine derby between Nancy and Metz. Among the proposals: the “quichico”, the “mirabellico” or even the “n’t-forget-your-knitting”.
These pranks also sometimes carry charges against football business. As early as 2013, a reader of La Provence suggested with a certain bitterness to nickname PSG-Monaco the “millionico”. Sports media highlight the issues hidden behind certain matches. The Manchester City-Paris Saint-Germain, a duel between two club-states, respectively owned by the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, thus becomes the “petrolico”, or even the “golfico”. “We are emphasizing something more grating,” notes Médéric Gasquet-Cyrus. A way, implicitly, of recalling the lost working-class roots of football. “These diverted references mark a return to a more popular side. » A sort of “revanchico”.
