“Being nutmegged soon came to imply stupidity on the part of the duped victim and cleverness on the part of the trickster.” RabonaĪ lesser-seen phenomenon at the World Cup. “Nutmegs were such a valuable commodity that unscrupulous exporters were to pull a fast one by mixing a helping of wooden replicas into the sacks being shipped to England,” Seddon wrote. One of the claims was that it comes from Cockney rhyming slang with the ball going through the opponents nutmegs (legs).īut, writing in the book ‘Football Talk – The Language And Folklore Of The World’s Greatest Game’, Peter Seddon explains that its origin relates to the exportation of nutmeg between North America and England in the 1800s. The origin of the term - also the name of a spice used in cooking - is unclear as there are several explanations. A player must simply kick the ball through an opponent’s legs to perform a nutmeg. The Uruguayan striker has always been associated with the skill while Ronaldinho and Juan Roman Riquelme are two of the most iconic exponents from years gone by. Luis Suarez and Aissa Laidouni showed perhaps the two best examples of nutmegs (against Inaki Williams and Edouardo Camavinga respectively) in Qatar. This has been a really popular one at the World Cup. That said, they do certainly still exist and The Athletic is on hand to explain the most popular skills - and some tactics - that you might have seen at the World Cup.
