From Coffee to Cocaine and Free Sex
Hosts Russia take on Saudi Arabia in the opening match of the 2018 World Cup today. If you read Thai, you are likely to see eye-catching headlines in Thai-language newspapers such as “White Bears face Oil-rich Team”.
Every team has its nickname and many teams simply call themselves the team or the national team or use the colour(s) of their national flags as their nicknames.
Thais see this quite boring so they created exciting nicknames for them.
So Russia are called the White Bears (the Polar Bears) by the Thai press and the Saudis the Oil-Rich Team.
Russia’s official nickname is Sbornaya (the National Team) and Saudi Arabia’s the Green Falcons.
Defending champions Germany’s nickname is Die Mannschaft (the Team) but Thais call them the Iron Eagles (thanks to their logo) or the Beer (the country is famous for beer).
Brazil’s nickname is Selecao (the Selection or the Team) in Portuguese but they are the Coffee or the Samba in Thailand.
Indeed, the nickname Coffee should go to Colombia whose nickname is Los Cafeteros (the Coffee Growers).
Thais used to call Colombia the Cocaine and this prompted a protest from the country’s embassy here during the World Cup in the US in 1994 when they were considered one of the title favourites.
Unfortunately, Colombia were eliminated in the first round following a shock 2-1 loss to the Americans with Colombia’s Andres Escobar scoring an own-goal.
The player, who was no relation to Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, was gunned down after he returned home.
Spain’s nickname is La Roja (the Reds) or La Furia Roja (the Red Fury) but Thais call them the Raging Bulls.
France’s nickname is Le Bleus (the Blues) but they are nicknamed the Cocks (roosters) by the Thai media thanks to the team’s logo.
Argentina call themselves La Albiceleste (the White and Sky Blue) but Thais see it the other way round and call them the Sky Blue and White.
Belgium are seen as dark horses for the title in Russia. Their nickname is the Red Devils and Thais think it is already a proper nickname and call them so.
Egypt are quite popular here thanks to Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah.
Their nickname is the Pharaohs but Thais call them the Mummies.
It could be an interesting match when the Mummies take on the Brutals (Uruguay) tomorrow.
Sweden, whose nickname is Blagult (the Blue-Yellow), are called the Free Sex by the Thai press although this is rarely used now.
Their neighbours Denmark are nicknamed the Milk Cows probably because of the Thai-Danish milk brand.
Mexico use El Tri (the Tri-colours) as their nickname because of the colours of their national flag (green, red and white).
However, Thais call them Django, the lead character in the 1966 spaghetti western film of the same name.
Apart from Saudi Arabia, the other four Asian representatives in Russia are Japan, South Korea, Iran and Australia.
Thais call Japan the Samurai or Raw Fish (sashimi), South Korea the White Ginseng, Iran the Persians and Australia the Kangaroos.
South Korea are the White Ginseng as opposed to the Red Ginseng (North Korea) as Thais believe democracy is white and socialism or communism is red.
Interestingly, Iran were used to be called the Khomeini’s Players by the Thai press.
As for Thailand, the national side only got their official nickname the War Elephants only a few years ago. Judging from the team’s recent performances, there is still a long way for the War Elephants to make their World Cup debut.