Vuvuzela South Africa

Vuvuzela is the word of the 2010 World Cup, would you want to know it? Not Jabulani, although I think the name of the energetic ball of happiness is probably a close second or third.

No, I’m not suffering from post World Cup euphoria. I read this on the Web so it must be true.

Vuvuzela – Biggest Impact on 2010 World Cup

Linguists in more than 60 countries voted that the vuvuzela is the word “that has made the biggest impact on the 2010 World Cup, and that it will be best remembered for”.

“Long after individual matches and goals are forgotten, this will be remembered as the Vuvuzela World Cup,” said Jurga Zilinskiene, managing director of London-based firm Today Translations a London-based translation company with a network of 2, 600 linguists in over 60 countries, on Media 24.com.

“Vuvuzela” was chosen by 75% of more than 320 linguists from over 60 countries, who were asked to choose the word with the biggest impact on the tournament.

Vuvuzela Landslide Victory

Vuvuzela won a landslide victory in a survey of linguists conducted by Today Translations,

In second place was Waka, after the official World Cup song by Shakira and the South African group, Freshlyground.

In joint third place were Jabulani, the official match ball of the tournament, Zakumi, the official World Cup mascot, and Bafana, the nickname of the South African national soccer team.  (By the way whatever happened to Zakumi?

Popularity: 3% [?]

The Golden Ball nominees have been announced for the 2010 World Cup. The adidas Golden Ball is the official FIFA trophy for the “Best Player of the Tournament”.

Everybody has their favorite player, but there have been a few players who have certainly stood out during this tournament, no matter what team you have been supporting.

The ten nominated players for the Golden Ball were selected by the FIFA Technical Study Group that includes football experts such as Kalusha Bwalya, Christian Karembeu, Jomo Sono and Gérard Houllier.

Nominees for the Golden Ball

Nominees for the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ adidas Golden Ball trophy are:

• Diego Forlan (URU)
• Asamoah Gyan (GHA)
• Andres Iniesta (ESP)
• Lionel Messi (ARG)
• Mesut Oezil (GER)
• Arjen Robben (NED)
• Bastian Schweinsteiger (GER)
• Wesley Sneijder (NED)
• David Villa (ESP)
• Xavi (ESP)

Accredited media representatives will vote to determine the winners of the adidas Golden, Silver and Bronze ball awards on FIFA.com. The winners will be announced after the final on 11 July.

adidas Golden Ball past winners

1982 FIFA World Cup™ Spain: Paolo Rossi (Italy)
1986 FIFA World Cup™ Mexico: Diego Maradona (Argentina)
1990 FIFA World Cup™ Italy: Salvatore Schillaci (Italy)
1994 FIFA World Cup™ USA: Romario (Brazil)
1998 FIFA World Cup™ France: Ronaldo (Brazil
2002 FIFA World Cup™ Korea / Japan: Oliver Kahn (Germany)
2006 FIFA World Cup™ Germany: Zinedine Zidane (France)

Read more about the Golden Ball  nominees  on FIFA’s Website

Image: golden Ball trophy fifa .com

Popularity: 3% [?]

FIFA has announced the shortlist for the Best Young Player of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. They sure had a great crop of youngster to pick from this year as many of the top teams fielded young sides.

Best Young Player Announced After the Final

According to FIFA, The award continues the tradition of officially recognising the positive impact made by young footballers and is open to all participating players born on or after 1 January 1989. The final winner will be selected by the FIFA TSG and announced on FIFA.com after the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ Final. The winner will receive the coveted Hyundai Best Young Player Award trophy and a new Hyundai Tucson ix 35.

Thomas Muller, Giovanni Dos Santos and Andre Ayew

Nominees for the Hyundai Best Young Player Award at the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa:

Thomas Mueller (GER): Thomas Mueller’s rapid rise through the senior football ranks has been nothing short of remarkable. A fringe player with his club, Bayern Munich, just two seasons ago, and with a first international cap coming only in March of this year (presciently, a friendly against Argentina), the 20-year-old striker has captured the imagination of fans everywhere with his pulsating approach play and vital goals (4) and assists (3).

Giovani Dos Santos (MEX): Still only 21, Giovani Dos Santos is one of the most famous faces in the Mexico squad. “Gio”, who played much of the most recent club season on loan to Turkish side Galatasaray, burst on to the scene aged 16 when he showed prodigious technique and vision in helping Mexico to victory in the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Peru in 2005. The super-nimble young forward has become a key cog in the attractive Tricolor team and looks sure to be around for years to come.

Andre Ayew (GHA): The son of Black Stars legend Abedi Pele, ”Dede” Ayew is used to living his young life in the footballing spotlight and he has handled the attention with great poise. He already became a world champion with the U-20s in Ghana last year. As an attacking midfielder, Ayew has become an important part of Ghana’s playing system with a successful pass rate of 85 per cent.

Also see Golden Ball nominees.

Image: Best Young Player Shortlist – Fifa.com

Popularity: 4% [?]

OK, it is out, the most reliable oracle has been consulted and Paul the Octopus and waved his tentacles and predicted a win for Spain over the Netherlands in the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

The German celebrity cephalopod made this prediction about the Netherlands vs Spain Final that will take place on Sunday at Soccer City, in front of a swarm of TV cameras. In fact, two year old Paul the Octopus took  only three minutes to retrieve food from a tank with a Spanish flag on it, neglecting the tank with Dutch flag.

This was Paul’s second prediction of a Spain win. The win over Germany has made the octopus a hero in Spain and a villain in Germany.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Today is the last Football Friday of the 2010 World Cup. It seems like it all want past in a multi-coloured blur of excitement and amazing soccer.

Bafana Bafana makes South Africa Proud

We waited so long from that first announcement that South Africa would host the 2010 World Cup, the first on African soil, to the kickoff, just four weeks ago on 11 June at Soccer City in Jozi when Bafana Bafana held Mexico to a draw and Sipiwe Tshabalala score one of the most beautiful goals of the entire 2010 World Cup –in fact  the first goal of the tournament. (I’d show you the video, but FIFA has copyright and has taken all the copies off YouTube).

Do we even remember that Football Fridays were a campaign of Brand SA to get the country behind Bafana Bafana and to catch some “gees” for the 2010 World Cup. It took off quite slowly, with only die-hard soccer supporters and a patriotic few sporting yellow jerseys. At first, the jerseys were really hard to get and they were very expensive.

Vuvuzelas, Mirror Socks, and Flags

As we got closer to the big even, more jerseys and T-shirts came onto the market and Fridays became decidedly more yellow. Vuvuzelas started appearing all over the place – really cheap and in many colours.

Then the flags came out and the mirror socks and before we new it South Africa was swept up in a Bafana Bafana and World Cup frenzy like nobody had ever expected.

People were writing to me asking me where they could buy a vuvuzela. Flags and mirror socks were available at almost every traffic light and on the roadside and South Africa exploded into colour as the visitors arrived for the tournament.

I have never seen so many flags – car flags – flags hanging out of windows, strung up on masts, painted on faces…. everywhere. And one could hear the paaarp of vuvuzelas all over.

Waka Waka Official World Cup Song

I never really got the diski dance, but it wasn’t long before I got fully into the Waka Waka Official World Cup song and was going Waka Waka to everybody. (I must admit I wasn’t happy at first – nothing against Shakira, but hey we have awesome singers in South Africa)

Last Football Friday

And now that it is the last Football Friday, and we have only two more matches left, let us make a commitment not to stop flying the flag… Can we keep flying the flag,  just for a little bit longer?

OK there won’t be anymore Football Fridays where you can just go up and greet and chat to anyone in a yellow jersey, ’cause you know you have something in common.

But maybe Fridays can just sort of unofficially become a day that we greet one or two strangers and say Yebo or Howzit! – Just for the sake of the beautiful game man!

Check out some cool Football Friday Pics at AwesomeSA

Popularity: 5% [?]