How Do Facebook Users Across the Globe Express “Soccer” and “Goal”? [MAP]

Mikaela Rakos

10 years ago

In the world of the World Cup, soccer fans and sportscasters yelling “goal” is no strange thing. But does “goal” make sense in the world’s many languages? A data analytics team from AllFacebook took a look at the social network to determine how users across the globe express the words “soccer” and “goal” on Facebook.

The team found that, so far, the five most common translations and spellings of “soccer” during this year’s World Cup have been:

English-speakers in the U.S., Canada, South Africa and Australia call the game “soccer” while much of Europe, Africa, and Southeast Asia prefer “football.” The Spanish “fútbol” is used mostly in Latin America and Spain. Brazil and Portugal as well as Angola, Mozambique, and other former Portuguese colonies in Africa say “futebol.” “Futbal” without the accent mark seems to be the preferred spelling in Turkey.

Facebook users also express “goal” in the world’s many languages. The five most common variations of “goal” have been:

Sportcasters stretch out the word “goal” when a team scores so that it sounds more like, “Goooooalll.” Facebook users often do the same in their posts. The five countries where folks on Facebook are using the highest average number of characters to write “goal” are:

How are you talking about the World Cup?