📖 From soap operas to raids: your full transfer glossary 🤑

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·5 August 2025

📖 From soap operas to raids: your full transfer glossary 🤑

In football, there is a jargon that is quite different from what is used every day. Watching a match, you’ll hear various terms that are completely unfamiliar to anyone who isn’t a fan, from the classic “offside” to “braccetto,” passing through terms like “tridente,” “remuntada,” and “rovesciata.”

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Even within the broad topic of football, however, there’s a subchapter that—especially in the summer—often takes the front pages of newspapers. We’re talking about the transfer market, a theme capable of making entire generations of fans dream under their beach umbrellas.

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As is only right, the transfer market also has its own vocabulary, which enriches the daily negotiations.

👀 "Condor", "Rumor" and... "Mr. X"!

To follow this last month of the transfer market, then, it might be useful to review the terminology.

Telenovela: A widely used term to describe those negotiations that drag on over time, going through various phases of uncertainty. The example these days is Lookman-Inter, but even Jashari-Milan could easily fall into this category.
White smoke: If a telenovela ends with an agreement for the transfer, then you get the “white smoke,” an expression borrowed from ecclesiastical jargon (when a new Pope is elected, white smoke signals that the cardinals in conclave have made the long-awaited choice).
Raise: The first offer isn’t accepted? Well, here comes the raise. There’s no limit—a club can raise as many times as it wants, always increasing the offer.
Ultimatum: At a certain point, though, you get tired of raising. That’s when the ultimatum arrives. Translation: there will be no more offers, take it or leave it.
Verbal agreement: This is different from a written agreement, which signals the closing of the deal. Here it’s more like a Handshake, which seals the successful outcome of the negotiations.
Friendly club: For a handshake to be enough to close everything, the two clubs at the table need to be friendly. What does that mean? That they are clubs with excellent relations, who try not to target the same objectives and who—always within the limits of what is allowed—may give each other special consideration compared to other teams.
Fixed fee and bonuses: When buying a player’s registration, you often pay an amount immediately (or in several installments) and another amount is included as bonuses. In a deal worth 40 million + 5 in bonuses, the 40 million is guaranteed, while the 5 depends on various factors (the bonus could be linked to the number of goals scored, winning a trophy, number of appearances, etc.).
Free transfer: A term that didn’t exist until 1995, the year the European Court of Justice adopted the “Bosman ruling.” Thanks to this measure, players can choose not to extend their contract with their club, letting it expire so they can move to another team without the new club having to pay a transfer fee to the previous club. A free transfer, in short, is a player free to sign with any club.
Rumor: Not a negotiation, but a piece of gossip that could soon become one.
Courtship: More than just a rumor. The player is liked; now it remains to be seen if the interest is mutual.
Inquiry: At this point, you need to ask the club and/or the player’s agents for information to test the waters.
Hot lead: Now we’re well beyond a rumor. The profile being discussed is the number one target and there’s a chance an agreement could be reached in a short time.
Blitz: What about a blitz? A term often paired with “nighttime,” it refers to a move by an executive who, suddenly and without warning, manages to speed up the talks.
Knots to untie: The negotiation is well underway, only a few details are missing—like, for example, the number of installments to be paid, or the difference between fixed fee and bonuses, or some figure to tweak in the contract.
Final push: After the blitz, the final push often comes—the moment of truth. Here, the club buying the player puts all its cards on the table.
Flame rekindled: When a club that had negotiated for a player, then turned to another target or decided to abandon the pursuit, decides to try again. It doesn’t always end well.
Two-horse race: When two clubs are after the same transfer target.
Overtake: The two-horse race can have different moments, with overtakes and counter-overtakes.
Blow: Usually, whoever loses the race gets dealt a blow. But even someone who thought they were close to signing—only to be surprised at the last minute by another club’s move—can be “blown,” as happened two years ago to Milan with Inter, when Marcus Thuram seemed on the verge of signing with the Rossoneri.
Here we go: The classic phrase used by transfer market expert Fabrizio Romano to indicate the moment when every detail of the negotiation has been finalized and, therefore, the deal is done.
Mr. X: A term that is heard less and less in an era where it’s hard to keep your targets secret. “Mr. X” refers to a clear transfer target, but whose name is unknown.
Condor Days: The “Condor” is Adriano Galliani, current CEO of Monza. Back in his Milan days, Galliani was number one in the market, so much so that he had an expression dedicated to him: “Condor Days” referred to the last 24/48 hours of the transfer window, when—more often than not—Galliani would pull off deals that seemed unthinkable just a short time before.

This, in broad strokes, is the dictionary of the transfer market. A tool that should never be missing.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇮🇹 here.

📖 From soap operas to raids: your full transfer glossary 🤑 | OneFootball

📖 From soap operas to raids: your full transfer glossary 🤑

OneFootball Videos

👀 "Condor", "Rumor" and... "Mr. X"!

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