When you say football

What do the Italians call a penalty taken in the style of Antonín Panenka, and is his name really that famous around the world? Where is a footballer aiming when they say in Saudi Arabia that he's hunting pigeons? How is it that in Portugal footballers shout “thief!” while in Brazil they shout “police!”? Why do some look for spiders' or wasps' nests in the goal? This original dictionary of football phrases from around the world, Když se řekne fotbal (When You Say Football), will answer all these questions for you. Football is a global sport, and although some terminology is passed from one language to another, every country still has a host of specific phrases that boggle the mind (even if it's not the often-underestimated mind of a footballer). It's hard to guess what a 'sušička' (dryer) means in Polish football, a 'brambora' (potato) in Norwegian, a 'plátek sýra' (slice of cheese) in Australian, or a 'čokoládová noha' (chocolate leg) in Dutch. Why do they 'break eggs' in a Thai match and 'step on a snake' in a Congolese one?
Když se řekne fotbal is anything but a dry dictionary. The individual entries are explained through often quite curious stories from the history of world football, introducing you to rarities you have most likely never heard of. About a season in Colombia that lasted more than 15 months; about the limited number of permitted draws in the Soviet league; about a bizarre match in Indonesian football where both teams tried to score more own goals than the opposition; about how, for a certain period in China, headed goals were valued so much that they counted as two. You will be amused to be reminded many times that the ball is round, and a treacherous thing at that.