The transfer window is open until the end of the month and so today’s football phrase is ‘free transfer‘. You can find more language of transfers here and try a transfer language quiz here. If you have any suggestions or questions then you can contact us at admin@languagecaster.com.
Free Transfer
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When a player moves from one club to another we call this a transfer. If a club pays another club money for the player then this is called the transfer fee but sometimes no money changes hands and so the exchange is known as a free transfer. When a player’s contract is up at one club then they can leave on a free transfer to another one. Sometimes (though now not too often), you will see the phrase ‘on a Bosman‘ used to describe this kind of transfer named after the first player to move in this fashion back in the 1990s. This means that a player can leave at the end of their contract with no fee exchanging hands between clubs – sometimes we might hear that a player is running down their contract so that they can leave for free or ‘on a free‘.
- Example: The player left the club on a free transfer after playing for more than ten years.
- Example: The striker left Arsenal for Man City on a Bosman.
- Example: Paul Pogba reaches verbal agreement to rejoin Juventus on free transfer (Guardian.co.uk, June 15 2022)
Related Vocabulary
- The language of transfers in 4 easy steps
- Transfer request
- Loan
- Transfer window
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