📖 From dramas to deadline deals: your transfer market glossary 🤑

In football, there is a separate jargon from what is used every day. Watching a match, you hear various terms completely unknown to those who are not fans, from the most classic "offside" to "arm in arm", passing through various "trident", "comeback", "overhead kick".

Even within the macro-topic of football, however, there is a sub-chapter that - especially in summer - often willingly takes the front pages of newspapers. We are talking about the transfer market, a topic capable of making entire generations of fans dream under the beach umbrella.

As it should be, the market also has its own vocabulary, which enriches everyday negotiations.

👀 "Condor", "Rumor" and... "Mr. X"!

To follow this last month of the market, then, a review of the terminologies can be useful.

• Telenovela: A term widely used to describe those negotiations that drag on over time, experiencing various phases of uncertainty. The example these days is Lookman-Inter, but also Jashari-Milan can well end up in the pot.
• White smoke: If a telenovela ends with the agreement for the transfer, then there will be white smoke, an expression borrowed from ecclesiastical jargon (at the time of the election of the new Pope, there is white smoke when the cardinals gathered in conclave arrive at the long-awaited choice).
• Relaunch: The first offer is not accepted? Well, here comes the relaunch. There is no limit, a club can relaunch as many times as it wants, always increasing the offer. 
• Ultimatum: At a certain point, however, you get tired of relaunching. Here then - comes the ultimatum. Translated: no more offers will arrive, take it or leave it.
• Word agreement: It is different from the written agreement, which announces the closing of the agreement. Here we are more at a Handshake, which sanctions the successful negotiations.
• Friendly company: For a handshake to close everything, it is necessary that the two companies sitting at the table are friends. What does it mean, though? That these are clubs with excellent relationships, which try not to aim for the same goal and that - always within the limits of what is allowed to do - maybe they have a special consideration compared to other teams.
• Fixed part and bonus: When you buy a player's card, you often pay a sum immediately (or in several installments) and another is put within the bonuses. In a 40 million + 5 bonus deal, the 40 million are guaranteed, while the 5 depend on various factors (the bonus can be linked to the number of goals scored, the victory of a trophy, the number of appearances...).
• Zero parameter: Terminology that did not exist until 1995, the year in which the Court of Justice of the European Union adopted the "Bosman Ruling". Thanks to this provision, players can choose not to extend their contract with their club, thus going to expiry to transfer to another team without this having to pay the cost of the card to the previous club. A zero parameter, in short, is that player free to sign with any club.
• Rumor: Not a negotiation, but a voice that can soon become one.
• Courtship: More than a simple rumor. The player is liked, now to understand if the interest is reciprocated.
• Hot track: Here we are well beyond the rumor. The profile being treated is the number 1 goal and there is the possibility that an agreement will be reached in a short time.
• Blitz: What about the blitz? A term that often accompanies "night", it indicates a move by a manager who, suddenly and without any warning, manages to accelerate the talks.
• Knots to untie: The negotiation is well underway, just missing some details like - for example - the number of installments to pay, or the difference between fixed part and bonus, or some figure to touch up on the contract.
• Final push: After the blitz often comes the final push, the moment of truth. Here the club buying the player puts all the cards it has in hand on the table.
• Rekindled interest: When a club that has negotiated a player and then turned to another target or decided to abandon the track, decides to try again. It's not always successful.
• Two-horse race: When two companies are on the same market target.
• Overtake: The two-horse race can experience different moments, with overtakes and counter-overtakes.
• Mockery: Usually, who loses the race is mocked. But also who thought they were close to signing and - instead - is surprised by the last-minute insertion of a club, a bit like what happened two years ago to Milan with Inter, when Marcus Thuram seemed a step away from signing with the Devil.
• Here we go: The classic expression used by market expert Fabrizio Romano to indicate the moment when every detail of the negotiation has been perfected and - therefore - the deal has gone through.
• Mr. X: A term that is talked about less and less in an era where it is difficult to keep your goals hidden. With "Mr. X" we refer to a clear market target, but whose name is not known. 
• Condor's days: The "Condor" is Adriano Galliani, current CEO of Monza. At the time of Milan, Galliani was the number 1 on the market, so much so to have an expression dedicated to him: with "the days of the Condor" were meant the last 24/48 hours of the market, those in which - often and willingly - Galliani closed unthinkable agreements until a short time before.

This, in broad terms, is the market dictionary. A tool that can never be missing.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇮🇹 here.