Euro 24 Football Language Phrase Day 29: Wonder Goal
In this football language post we look at the phrase ‘wonder goal‘ after Spain’s teenage-sensation Lamine Yamal’s goal against France in the semi-final of the 2024 Euros. Don’t forget we have hundreds more explanations of football language in our football glossary and we also have a page full of football cliches. If you have questions or comments about this or any other phrase then email us at: admin@languagecaster.com.
Wonder goal
The first semi-final of the 2024 European Championship took place yesterday with Spain coming from behind to defeat France 2-1 to reach the final. The 16-year old winger Lamine Yamal scored the equaliser with a wonderful left-foot strike from outside the box that flew into the top corner (top bins). A wonder goal is a goal with a high degree of difficulty; a goal that is brilliant and which amazes the fans and TV viewers. The adjective form would be wonderful which of course means marvellous or exceptional or just really, really good. Other words and phrases to explain this kind of goal include: ‘magical’ and ‘beauty’ ‘(it was a magical goal’; ‘they scored a beauty’ – though we would not say a ‘beauty goal’.
In some of the newspaper reports after the game the spelling has been different. Some of them write the phrase as one word (wondergoal), while others have written it as two words (wonder goal). I think both ways still act as a noun phrase – the goal was a wonderful or amazing one.
- Example: Lamine Yamal hits back at Adrien Rabiot comments as Euro 2024 wondergoal proves point (Independent, July 10 2024)
- Example: Yamal’s wonder goal sends Spain to final (BBC.co.uk, July 10 2024)
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