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Football (Soccer) vocabulary · Positions & Players

Captain

Meaning in football (soccer), with examples

/ˈkæptɪn/nounCore term

In football (soccer), captain means: The player chosen to lead the team on the pitch, who wears the armband, takes part in the coin toss and is the referee's main contact.

In Turkish: kaptan

How it is used

Players captain the side, wear the captain's armband and lead by example. The vice-captain takes over if the captain is injured or rested. Captain is also a verb: "She captained the team for six years."

Example sentences

  1. As captain, he went to talk to the referee about the second yellow.

  2. She was named club captain at only 23.

Common collocations

  • club captain
  • captain's armband
  • vice-captain
  • captain the side
  • squadAll the players available to a team for a season or a competition, from whom the starting eleven and the substitutes are chosen.
  • refereeThe official in charge of a match who applies the rules, blows the whistle, gives fouls and shows yellow and red cards.
  • managerIn British football, the person in charge of the first team who picks the side, decides tactics and often has a say in transfers.
  • line-upThe list of players a team starts a match with, usually including their positions, published about an hour before kick-off.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Positions & Players

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