Nutmegged
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A nutmeg (or tunnel or panna) is a technique used in football (soccer) or hockey, in which a player plays the ball through an opponent's legs. This can be whilst passing to another player, shooting or occasionally to carry on and retrieve it them self. Only if the ball is received on the other side by one of the above, or results in a goal, will the move be classed as a nutmeg.

Origin

The origins of the word are a point of debate. According to Alex Leith's book Over the Moon, Brian - The Language of Football, "nuts refers to the testicles of the player through whose legs the ball has been passed and nutmeg is just a development from this". The use of the word nutmeg to mean leg in Cockney rhyming slang has also been put forward as an explanation. The most likely source, however, was postulated by Peter Seddon in his book "Football Talk - The Language And Folklore Of The World's Greatest Game". Nutmegs were a valuable commodity and exporters would regularly place wooden replicas in the ships to England to make up the weight. To be 'nutmegged' implied stupidity on the part of the receiver. It soon caught on in football, implying that the player whose legs the ball had been played through had been tricked, or, nutmegged.

Tactic

Performing a nutmeg is commonly seen as showing the opponent is lacking in footballing skill, and therefore amongst amateur players (particularly children) nutmegs are frequently tried so as to embarrass the opposition player and prove your own skill. The player that performs the nutmeg would sometimes say "Olé!" In northern England the term nutmeg is often shortened to "megs" in informal use. For example, if one player nutmegs another, as he runs past to retrieve the ball, he may call "megs!". However in other parts of the country, players have been known to call "nuts!". In the United States "meg" is frequently used as a verb.

In recent times, the Panna has become prevalent in the highly regarded Dutch Street Football scene. The Panna itself is considered an ultimate humiliation and competitions are held for people to Out-Panna each other. For this reason many regard Dutch Street Footballers as the best exponents of the Panna.

Further reading

• "The Nutmeg dribbling trick". Expert Football. Retrieved on 2005-12-20. — stills of a player executing a nutmeg, demonstrating the trick of pulling the ball back in order to force the defender to open his legs
• "Nutmeg earns O'Shea praise", Manchester United (2003-04-26).  — John O'Shea's nutmeg on Luís Figo
• "Finishing and Scoring". Expert Football. Retrieved on 2005-12-20. — A well-positioned goalkeeper may be vulnerable to a nutmeg.

References

1. "Where does the term nutmeg come from - the final word". The Knowledge. The Guardian. Retrieved on 2006-08-01, 2006.