Great article! I agree that sports translation in general, and football translation in particular, require a good base of knowledge on the part of the writer - in fact I'd go further and say that a football translator really needs to have had exprerience writing on the subject in his/her mother tongue, or at the very least, as you rightly say, be an avid reader of articles on the subject. I grew up reading match reports, transfer news and general articles in English pap... See more Great article! I agree that sports translation in general, and football translation in particular, require a good base of knowledge on the part of the writer - in fact I'd go further and say that a football translator really needs to have had exprerience writing on the subject in his/her mother tongue, or at the very least, as you rightly say, be an avid reader of articles on the subject. I grew up reading match reports, transfer news and general articles in English papers, and styles vary greatly from one to the next - in the UK, even regionalisms are important - the football-razy from the north-east of England will use a slightly differeny language to those in Scotland (where a "shy" was the preferred word for a "corner" when I was growing up). Similarly, if you were to sit in The Kop, Liverpool FC's famous stand and fan-base at Anfield, you'd be in for an education. Another sport fast gaining exposure in Brazil is Rugby Union, with ESPN covering the Heineken Cup, Six-Nations Championship and Rugby World Cup to be held this year, bringing with it a need for explanatory commentary and use of the sport's very unique jargon. Those translators who would wish to profit from the upcoming World Cup and Olympics in Brazil would do well to start doing their homework - football and sport are, these days, sub-cultures in their own right, and every sub-culture has its own language to be learned, used appropriately and kept up with as the new vocabulary is born, old becomes extinct and existing is adapted. Football writing, and by extension translation is, quite simply, an art. Looking forward to the 2011-2012 season - Go King Kenny, and Up the Reds! You'll never walk alone. ▲ Collapse | |