Ranking the 25 Coolest Team Nicknames in World Football

One of the most difficult things for new football fans to understand is the nickname situation.

Americans have their franchises with nicknames built right in. Some are cool (Green Bay Packers, Boston Red Sox), and some are ridiculous (Utah Jazz, Minnesota Wild).

In world football, the teams don't actually have nicknames. Instead, they just develop over time.

That makes for some cool ones, some weird ones and some stupid ones.

We'll see a bit of all three in this list.

Nos. 25-19: Uncreative, but still cool

25. Spurs (Tottenham Hotspur)

Spurs, and just Spurs. Not "The Spurs," and not "The Tottenham Hotspur Spurs." Just Spurs.

Simple. Cool.

24. Azzurri (Italy)

It means "The Blues in Italian.

But it sounds a lot cooler.

That's probably because Italian is a much cooler language than English.

23. The Dragons (Wales)

Who doesn't like dragons? They have their own sub-genre in medieval legends.

They're so popular, in fact, that there's one on the Welsh flag.

22. The Samurai Blue (Japan)

Samurai are cool. Not even Tom Cruise could ruin their coolness.

21. Clockwork Orange (Netherlands)

This is creative until you realize they always wear orange at home (it's the color of the royal family, not the flag, which is red, white and blue).

20. Taegeuk Warriors (South Korea)

Taegeuk sounds really cool, and it is. It's the ultimate reality from which everything originates, according to ancient philosophy.

It's also the symbol in the middle of the South Korean flag.

19. The Black Stars (Ghana)

Like Wales and South Korea, this nickname comes from the national flag, which is suitably cool.

As an American, I'm obligated to hate this team because they put mine out at the last two World Cups.

I do, but I also envy their name.

Nos. 18-15: Weird, but cool

18. La Lepra (Newell's Old Boys)

Newell's Old Boys are a club based in Argentina. Besides having a cool name, their nickname translates to "The Leprosy."

I'd be scared to play them.

17. Los Pincharratas (Estudiantes de la Plata)

Another Argentine club with a cool nickname.

Los Pincharratas? Rat Stabbers, of course.

16. Los Comateros (Puebla)

Puebla are a Mexican club with a humorous nickname.

Comateros translates to something like "Sweet Potato Growers."

Mmm.

15. Tractor Boys (Ipswich Town)

Where I grew up, it was cool to go to have a high school football team named the Aggies.

England's version seems much cooler to me.

Nos. 14-9: Cool use of animal nicknames

14. Super Eagles (Nigeria)

Everybody's called the Eagles.

Nigeria are better than that. They're the Super Eagles.

13. Socceroos (Australia)

I know all you Englishmen hate the word soccer. I know. It sounds like a still-developing cuss word.

Anyway. Where some of us live, that's what the sport is called.

And in Australia, they have kangaroos. Why not combine the two?

(Hey, geniuses, that's called a portmanteau.)

12. Chivas (Club Deportivo Guadalajara)

The strict translation is "Goats." But I like to think it's more like Billy Goats.

That's just cool.

Chivas USA? Not so much.

11. Potros de Hierro (Atlante)

In the NFL, Peyton Manning plays for the Colts. Meh.

It Mexico, they play for the Iron Colts.

That's so much better.

10. The Three Lions (England)

The Football Association's emblem depicts three lions surrounded by roses.

The lions come from an old Plantagenet coat of arms. The Plantagenets? They were the kings of medieval England (think Richard the Lionheart from Robin Hood).

How cool is that?

9. The Indomitable Lions (Cameroon)

What's cooler than three lions?

Indomitable Lions, that's what.

They're not really indomitable on the field (best World Cup finish: 1990 quarters), but their nickname definitely is.

Nos. 8-6: Just plain cool

8. Los Millonarios (River Plate)

You figure it out.

River Plate, by the way, probably don't employ many millionaires right now. They got relegated a while back, and now play in the second tier of Argentine football.

Oops.

7. The Magical Magyars (Hungary)

This nickname isn't used so much today as it was in the 1950s, when Hungary fielded one of the best teams in the world.

Magyars? Look it up.

6. Bafana Bafana (South Africa)

It means "The boys, the boys," or "Go boys, go boys."

If you don't think that's cool, there's something wrong with you.

The Top 5

5. Vecchia Signora (Juventus)

That's Italian for "Old Lady."

If you call yourself the Old Lady of Italian football and still manage to become one of the country's top clubs, that's pretty cool.

4. El Submarino Amarillo (Villarreal)

The Beatles must have been really big on the Mediterranean coast of Spain.

3. The Bhoys (Celtic)

It's what it sounds like, except that it reflects the Irish pronunciation.

The Irish pronunciation reflects the Irish origins of the club.

It's pretty cool to integrate your club's heritage in your nickname.

2. De Godenzonen (Ajax)

The sons of the gods.

Boom.

1. A Seleção (Brazil)*

Why can't English use all those cool thingamajigs?

First of all, that nickname just looks cool.

Second, it means "The Selection."

Considering Brazil are the best football country of all time, they deserve to call their team something so simple and arrogant.

And something so cool. 

(*Also used by Portugal, but that's not as cool)