For this week’s English for football phrase we talk about the noun, a hatful.

* Find out more about this phrase by reading the transcript below.

* You can also find many more examples of soccer vocabulary by going to our football cliches page here and our huge football glossary here.

Subscribe: Weekly Football Phrase

(a) Hatful

There are several words in football that describe the number of goals a player scores. Two goals scored by one player is a brace, three goals by the same player is a hatrick, originally a term from cricket, but what if a player scores more. There is a noun that is used to describe scoring a lot of goals, and that is hatful. While it doesn’t indicate exactly how many goals, if a player scored four or five goals, you could say they scored a hatful. More commonly the noun is used to describe a teams overall goal scoring, as it is rare for a single player to score more than three goals. One way to imagine the meaning of this word is to think of a hat as a container full of objects, for example money. Performers, such as magicians, after a show pass their hat around the audience asking for money. If it was a great show, they would receive a Hatful of coins.

* Example: West Ham’s Andy Carroll must score a hatful to make England Euros squad warns boss Bilic. (Headline, The Mirror)

* Example: Suarez has scored a hatful of beautiful free kicks throughout his career, mostly for Liverpool, but he’s sure to add many more wearing a Barcelona shirt. (Article)

If you have any suggestions for words or phrases from football that you would like explained, let us know by contacting us here. While you are on our site, why not check out the glossary page too, for hundreds more football words and phrases.