language

Luke Taylor on the vocabulary of Italian football, and why he’d rather it stayed untranslated. He works through four terms: the fantasista, catenaccio, fare risultato and the regista. The catenaccio section goes furthest: Antonio Negri once read the word as a working-class system, a way for a side with less talent to survive by being better organised. Rather more interesting than its current job as a synonym for parking the bus.