(to) Tap Up
To illegally or secretly approach another teama€™s player in order to try to persuade them to join your club. Clubs are not supposed to talk to a player who is under contract at another club – they must ask permission from their club first. But tapping up another player is still very common in football.
- Example: Tottenham have accused Manchester United of tapping up their player. They think Manchester United didna€™t follow the rules about buying a player and met Berbatov secretly (2009).
- Example: What is tapping up? Dark side of football transfer dealings revealed after Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk embarrassment (Daily Mirror, June 9 2017).
More Vocabulary
- See The Language of Transfers main report.
- Transfer request
Let us know if you hear this phrase or how this might be said in another language by dropping us a line at: admin@languagecaster.com. You can also find many more examples of soccer vocabulary by going to our football cliches page here and our huge football glossary here.
Learn English Through Football Podcast
Damian Fitzpatrick
Learn English Through Football Podcast: A show for football fans to improve their English language skills
