In this post we explain the noun phrase ‘fringe player.’ You can find more football words and expressions in our glossary of footballing phrases here, and you can visit our site to access all the previous posts and podcasts. If you have any suggestions or questions then contact us at admin@languagecaster.com.
Football Language: (a) Fringe Player
In this post, I’m going to take a look at the phrase ‘fringe player.’ This is quite an easy expression to understand if we look at some examples of the noun fringe. A fringe is the part of your hair that goes over your forehead – it’s the edge of your hair, the last part, not the central part on the top of your head. A fringe is also a decoration at the edge of clothes – again, not the main part of the clothing. So, a fringe player is a player on a team that is not a regular starter in the first team. They may not even get on the bench often – they are at the fringe of the team, the edge.
You might also hear the phrase ‘a bit-part player‘ meaning the same thing – a player that is not a regular in the first 11, someone who plays only a small part in the season. This week, in the Champions League, a fringe player at Chelsea, Ruben Loftus-Cheek scored a hat-trick against Bate, from Belarus. Maybe he won’t be a fringe player much longer!
Here’s another example from The Independent from September 2018: Gareth Southgate has warned England’s fringe players that if they are still not playing for their clubs by October’s international break, he may have to drop them.
Example: Fringe player decisions causes headache for David Moyes as hectic West Ham fixtures loom (10 Football London December 2020)
Related Vocabulary
Check out our glossary of footballing phrases here and if you have any suggestions or questions, contact us at admin@languagecaster.com
Free football language podcast for learners of English brought to you by Damian and Damon. Interviews, match reviews, predictions all with full language support for football fans around the world who wish to improve their English language skills.
Hi guys, I’m a German and not really a football person. But I’ve always been surrounded by football enthusiasts. And I am not totally uninterested. The other day, I heard the term ‘fringe player’ for the umpteenth time and finally wanted to look up the exact German equivalent. I realised that the term is not in any dictionary or kicktionary. Still, I want to find out the best way to translate it. I translated your (and other) English definitions for ‘fringe player’ into German and asked the football geeks of my family how they’d call such a player in German. The answer was ‘Bankdrücker’, which is the German equivalent of ‘benchwarmer’. I wasn’t happy with that because I don’t think the terms are 100% identical. Or are they? I thought that there is an overlap, but that the benchwarmer is more likely to be one of the fringe players who would not be fielded at all or only in extreme circumstances. Help!
Hi Antje,
Thanks for looking into the German equivalent of ‘fringe player’, and also for the term ‘kicktionary’ – that’s one I hadn’t heard! So ‘bankdrücker’ means ‘benchwarmer’? You’re right to say that benchwarmer and fringe player are similar but a little different. I personally would say that fringe player is even further from the team than a benchwarmer. Being on the bench means you are in the match day squad, whereas being a fringe player hints that you may not even make the squad for a game. perhaps you are seen mostly on the training ground. That’s only my feeling though.
Thank you – that fits my idea.