With the proliferation of instant response online mechanisms such as Siri/Alexa, search engines, ChatGPT, etc., everybody is only a voice command/click away from becoming a football (aka soccer) expert; however, there are some aspects of the beautiful game that are not as simple as just “GTS”ing (Google that stuff) information. To aid in understanding one of the most fundamental principles of the game, we decided to put together a mapping of the original football jersey #’s to field positions based on the 4-4-2 formation (depicted below). It is of utmost importance to understand that the variations of the original 4-4-2 formation have forced the original jersey #’s to relocate positions on the field and in most cases even be altered field position names from their original intents back in 1924.
As a bonus of this exercise, we added a little Mexican Spanish translation to it. Here is a quick summary of a translation of football (soccer) positions between United States English and Mexican Spanish. Note: Some terms are “South-American” Spanish derived:
| Position # (varies by country) | English name (Abbreviation) | Spanish name | Alternative Spanish names |
|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Goalkeeper (GK) Keeper Goalie | Portero | Arquero Guarda meta Guarda-vallas |
| #2 | Right fullback (RB) | Lateral derecho (LD) | Marcador de Punta derecho |
| #3 | Left fullback (LB) | Lateral izquierdo (LI) | Marcador de Punta izquierdo |
| #4 | Center back (CB) | Zaguero central derecho | Barredora |
| #5* | Center back (CB) | Zaguero central izquierdo | Libero |
| #6 | Defensive Midfielder (DM) | Contención | Pivote |
| #7 | Right Winger (RW) | Extremo derecho | Volante derecho |
| #8 | Center Midfielder (CM) | Medio centro | Volante mixto |
| #9 | Striker Center Forward (CF) | Centro Delantero (CD) | Ariete Punta |
| #10 | Center Attacking Midfielder (CAM) | Enganche | Medio Creativo Media Punta |
| #11 | Left Winger (LW) | Extremo izquierdo | Volante izquierdo |
*In Mexico (and all of South America), the typical North American #6 is called a #5.
For an explanation of the main duties (in English) of these positions. See here. At a later point, I may provide a mapping of jersey #s to field positions for other formations such as the 5-3-2 or 4-2-3-1 or other variations.
With so much football going on this summer, we have neglected posting as often. We’ll try to regain our normal pace the second half of the year. Meanwhile, if you have suggestions on topics you would like discussed, let us know. #theGomezway
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