With the 2026 World Cup taking place in North America, the debate around whether the sport should be called football or soccer is raging once more.
The modern version of football was popularised in Europe, and on that continent, it is called by its original name.
Only some nations refer to the sport as soccer, one of which is the United States. Now, former USMNT player Alexi Lalas has explained he will never change his mind and call it football.
Alexi Lalas will not call football soccer
The ex-player, who made 96 appearances for the USA in the 90s, responded to a tweet from a fan talking about why he still calls it soccer.
The fan stated: “Alexi we need to talk about you continuing to call the sport ‘soccer’ cmon man.. you could bridge the gap. Even the US players call it ‘football’ in overseas interviews out of respect.”
However, Lalas was unmoved by the comment and said it is ‘cringe’ to start saying football if you previously grew up referring to the sport as soccer.
He stated: “Yeah… that’s not gonna happen. I call it soccer. I own it proudly. I never apologize for it.
“If you grew up calling it soccer and changed out of insecurity or some misguided belief it makes you more authentic/credible… it doesn’t. It’s cringe. It makes you look like a weak poser.”
In the US, football is, of course, used to refer to American football and the NFL, which is a different sport altogether.
There would perhaps be some confusion if everyone in the country started to call both sports football. But that does seem unlikely to happen anytime soon.
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