El Tigre, La Pulga, El Bicho: Know the Spanish nicknames of football stars

Indian Super League Prediction

April 24 2024, 07:30 PM

Goa

Mumbai City

Bengaluru, May 7: Be it the Premier League, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 or La Liga, footballer especially asscoiated with Spain or from South America often get called different names by the locals.

Football stars grow into a star at a club breaking through the youth sytem then the first team and then earn their national call ups. And we have seen many earn honours wherever they went, but we also see them labelled with unique nicknames.

As well as their usual names, they have also been called the most creative nicknames through the years, here are some of the stories behind the nicknames of actvie footballers.

Radamel Falcao - "El Tigre" ("The Tiger")

Colombian striker Radamel Falcao is currently at Galatasray, but the paocher has represented a host of clubs including Porto, AS Monaco, Chelsea, Manchester United, and Atletico Madrid.

As a teenager, there was a tenacity in Falcao's game that kept him going on in Buenos Aires when many other Colombians, lonely and alienated in a foreign city, returned home. That never give-up approach earned him his nickname, El Tigre, after a team-mate told him he had played like a tiger in an under-15 game.

Lionel Messi - "La Pulga" (The Flea)

Argentine superstar Lionel Messi is known to have had growth problems when he was young and there are reports that Barcelona helped him bulk up when he left his native at the age of just 13. Those issues earned him the nickname 'La Pulga' (the flea) from a very early age.

Cristiano Ronaldo - "El Bicho"

It all started with Spanish sports broadcaster Manolo Lama, who referred to the Portuguese striker as El Bicho and the reason was simple, it was due to his physical presence, strength and leadership. And that nickname was achieved during his stay in Spanish football with Real Madrid .

Gareth Bale - El Canon de Gales ("The Cannon of Wales")

Wales and Real Madrid winger Bale after his disappointing El Clasico debut, scored two goals and assisted two in a 7-3 victory against Sevilla four days later and that impressive performance prompted the Spanish press to nickname Bale "The Cannon".

Javier Hernandez - "Chicharito" ("Little Pea")

Former Manchester United star Javier Hernandez is also known as Chicharito, meaning little pea in Spanish, and also wears the name on his shirt. He earned that name due to his father, Javier Hernandez Gutierrez, being nicknamed Chicharo (pea) because of his green eyes.