Photo by ISIPhotos.com
By DAN KARELL
For every international tournament these days, there’s a slogan that accompanies it and the groups participating. The World Cup this year is no different.
FIFA chose the slogan “All in one rhythm” for Brazil 2014. Per FIFA General Secretary Jerome Valcke, this slogan was picked because, “it will unite fans in Brazil and abroad, around what will be a colorful and vibrant celebration set to a uniquely Brazilian rhythm.”
This year, the U.S. Men’s National Team will head to Brazil carried by the slogan “United by team, driven by passion.” U.S. Soccer has also been using the hashtag #1N1T, which stands for one nation, one team, in tweets about the World Cup. Past USMNT slogans have included “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of victory!” (2010) and “United we play, united we win,” (2006).
Here’s a look at all 32 participating nations’ slogans for the 2014 World Cup:
2014 WORLD CUP SLOGANS
Algeria
Official slogan: “Desert Warriors In Brazil” / محاربي الصحراء فى البرازيل (Arabic)
Argentina
Official slogan: “Not Just A Team, We Are A Country”/ “No Somos un Equipo, Somos un País”
Australia
Official slogan: “Socceroos: Hopping Our Way Into History!”
Belgium
Official slogan: “Expect The Impossible!” / “Verwacht je aan het onmogelijke!” (Dutch) / “Attendez-vous à L’impossible” (French)
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Official slogan: “Dragons in Heart, Dragons on the Field!” / Zmajevi U Scru…Zmajevi Na Terenu! (Bosnian)
Brazil
Official slogan: “Brace Yourselves! The Sixth is Coming!” / Preparem-Se! O Hexa Esta Chegando! (Portuguese)
Cameroon
Official slogan: “A Lion Remains A Lion” / Un Lion Demure un Lion (French)
Chile
Official slogan: “Chi Chi Chi!, Le Le Le! Go Chile!”
Colombia
Official slogan: “Here Travels A Nation, Not Just A Team!” / Aqui no Viaja un Equipo, ¡Viaja Todo un Pais! (Spanish)
Costa Rica
Official Slogan: “My Passion Is Football, My Strength Is My People, My Pride Is Costa Rica” / Mi Pasion el Fútbol, Mi Fortaleza Mi Gente, Mi Orgullo, Costa Rica (Spanish)
Croatia
Official slogan: With Fire in Our Hearts, For Croatia All as One! / S Vatrom U Srcima Za Hrvatsku Svi Kao Jedan! (Croatian)
Ecuador
Official slogan: “One Commitment, One Passion, Only One Heart, This Is For You Ecuador!” / “Un Compromiso, Una Pasión, Un Solo Corazón, ¡Va Por Ti Ecuador” (Spanish)
England
Official slogan: “The Dream Of One Team, The Heartbeat Of Millions!!”
France
Official slogan: “Impossible Is Not A French Word” / “Impossible N’est Pas Francais” (French)
Germany
Official slogan: “One Nation, One Team, One Dream!” / “Ein Land, Eine Mannschaft, Ein Traum” (German)
Ghana
Official slogan: Black Stars: Here To Illuminate Brazil
Greece
Official slogan: “Heroes Play Like Greeks” / “Οι ήρωες παίζουν όπως οι Έλληνες” (Greek)
Honduras
Official slogan: “We Are One Country, One Nation, Five Stars On The Heart” / “Somos Un Pueblo, Una Nacion, Cinco Estrellas de Corazon” (Spanish)
Iran
Official slogan: “Honor Of Persia” / افتخار پارس (Farsi)
Italy
Official slogan: “Let’s Paint The FIFA World Cup Dream Blue” / “Coloriamo D’Azzurro Il Sogno Mondiale” (Italian)
Ivory Coast
Official slogan: “Elephants Charging Towards Brazil!” / “Les Éléphants a la Conquête Du Brésil” (French)
Japan
Official slogan: “Samurai, The Time Has Come To Fight!” / サムライよ!! 戦いの時はきた! (Japanese)
Mexico
Official slogan: “Always United, Always Aztecas” / “Siempre Unidos, ¡Siempre Aztecas!” (Spanish)
Netherlands
Official slogan: “Real Men Wear Orange” / “Echte Mannen Dragen Oranje” (Dutch)
Nigeria
Official slogan: “Only Together We Can Win”
Portugal
Official slogan: “The Past Is History, The Future Is Victory” / “O Passado é História, O Futuro é a Vitória” (Portuguese)
Russia
Official slogan: “No One Can Catch Us” / “Нас не догонят” (Russian)
South Korea
Official slogan: “Enjoy It, Reds!” / 즐겨라, 대한민국! (Korean)
Spain
Official slogan: “Inside Our Hearts, The Passion Of A Champion” / “En Nuestro Corazón, La Pasión de un Campeón” (Spanish)
Switzerland
Official slogan: “Final Stop: 07-13-14 Maracana!” / “Arret Final: 07-13-14 Maracana! (French)
Uruguay
Official slogan: “Three Million Dreams…Let’s Go Uruguay” / “Tres millones de ilusiones… ¡vamos Uruguay!” (Spanish)
United States
Official slogan: “United By Team, Driven By Passion”
Some of these are downright corny. However, I do enjoy the simplicity of South Korea’s slogan.
There is alot of potential material here for new tattoos for our bigmouth “superstars” like Howard the tattooed man and Dempsey, too.!
Look guys, some of these slogans would make excellent tats! Don’t forget to post pics of you gettin new ink on instagram.
Such hard men, struttin around that Stanford campus with those bad tats, roflmao omg.
I’m gonna be like a real gang banger and get me a tear on my forearm, a tear for Landon Donovan. What a disgrace what Klinsi just did. Klinsi is a p.o.s.
The French slogan works better in French “Impossible n’est pas Francais”,
one irony is that translated into English “Impossible is not French”, it sounds just like the French,
or “Il n’est pas une pipe im fumer” trans: “this is not a pipe, I’m smoking?”.
Love Japan, “Samurai, the time is now!”.
Ivory Coast, “the Elephants are coming!”
And finally no matter how ridiculous it sounds we’re all going to get that
“Chi Chi Chi Le Le Le, Go Chile!”, stuck in our heads for a little while.
The French slogan should have been ‘We surrender!’
Love it!
I like Russia’s slogan:
“No one can catch us…and, even if they do, we’ll just deny it.”
I like Portugal’s most. It’s straightforward, not too fluffy, and still motivational.
U.S. needs to go with “Don’t Tread On Me” as the slogan, forever.
Staying true to form, United States with the mad corporate slogan LOL.
Yeah I’m pretty sure that’s just the Kumho Tires slogan.
If the final has its own specific slogan that’s a combo of the two sides:
Holland v. Australia: Real mean hopping to victory on orange kangaroos.
Nigeria v. England: Only Together We Can Win. !!.
(next…)
I love this idea. So many of them mention hearts….
Croatia v. Germany: Fire in our hearts, and sauerkraut in our colons (and soon in your nostrils).
What was Australia thinking?
These all suck.
Except for Ghana’s. That one is kinda cool.
United States
Official slogan: “United By Team, Driven By Passion” / “Soccer is for communists, pansies and (homophobic slur redacted)! Pass me the Busch Light and turn on American Idol” (American)
You meant NASCAR when you said “American Idol”, right?
Brazil’s slogan is reflective of their MASSIVE ego which I hope to see severely deflated at some point in this tournament. Can’t stand Brazil. Go USA!
Putin’s really rubbing it in on the shady stuff his country is pulling with this slogan.
I think the most inspiring are Costa Rica, Croatia and the US, with Germany also close. I got a kick out of France’s “Impossible is not a French word” and Holland’s “Real men wear orange.”
These are all awful and embarrassing
They really should have gone with “Clear eyes, full hearts.”
+1
This is the best comment I’ve ever seen. Fire Klinsmann, hire Coach and Mrs. Coach!
——————————Hastings———————-
McCoy——————Saracen—————Smash
———————Cafferty——————————–
——————————————Riggins————
Jamarcus——–Tinker——-Landry——-Santiago
———————Howard (Vince)——————–
Can’t lose!
France: United to get through a World Cup without a players revolt.
England: One team, Five missed penalties in the quarterfinal.
Greece: Heroes play like Greeks, Greeks play like Stole City.
Switzerland: fFinal Stop 7-13-14 Matacana, can anyone get us tickets?
United Stated: One Team, Driven by Dual Nationals.
Ah: One mediocre comment, many smartphone typos.
When I was in France during the WC06, there was a song that played constantly: Zidane il va marquer — Zidane Will Score. Just an awful awful song.
Japan slogan kicks butt!
I bet it kicks MAJOR butt when said by a frowning japanese person. Heck the sole word “Gojira” does.
I highly doubt England’s really ends with two exclamation marks.
*googles it, finds FIFA page with official slogans, confirms double exclamation, applies palm to face*
For the English, two exclamation points is equivalent to running around naked in front of the White House while wearing a tin foil hat and screaming, “The president is a lizard!”
According to English writer Terry Pratchett:
‘Multiple exclamation marks are a sure sign of a diseased mind.’
I tend to agree with him. There’s just no need!!!!
I feel sorry Australians. In true capitalistic form USA sounds like a end of corporate commercial.
USA slogan sounds like something from a car commercial
That IS a slogan from a car commercial…
The second part of it anyway.
You forgot Pawnee’s World Cup slogan:
“Eating our way into the future!”
(We don’t really watch soccer in Pawnee, so that slogan is for the Cheeseburger World Cup we’re hosting this summer, sponsored by Paunch Burger.)
Little Sebastian :'(
Don’t forget Scranton’s slogan: “Limitless soccer in a soccerless world.”
Hahaha. Well played, sir.
Did Adidas sponsor France’s slogan or what?
I like the matter-of-fact nature of Brazil’s.
Actual translations from a native speaker:
Argentina
Official slogan: “Dont steal our equipment, steal our peas”/ “No Somos un Equipo, Somos un País”
Brazil
Official slogan: “Prepare yourselves! A hex is placed upon your changepurse!” / Preparem-Se! O Hexa Esta Chegando! (Portuguese)
Cameroon
Official slogan: “A demure lion” / Un Lion Demure un Lion (French)
Colombia
Official slogan: “Do not put water in our equipment, put toads in our peas !” / Aqui no Viaja un Equipo, ¡Viaja Todo un Pais! (Spanish)
Croatia
Official slogan: Voltron! Chima! Go Jayden!! / S Vatrom U Srcima Za Hrvatsku Svi Kao Jedan! (Croatian)
France
Official slogan: “It is impossible to make a nest out of peas in france” / “Impossible N’est Pas Francais” (French)
Germany
Official slogan: “One land, one man’s shaft, in the buttocks” / “Ein Land, Eine Mannschaft, Ein Traum” (German)
Iran
Official slogan: “Death to America” / افتخار پارس (Farsi)
Netherlands
Official slogan: “Eight man-dragons are orange” / “Echte Mannen Dragen Oranje” (Dutch)
Nigeria
Official slogan: “Only Together We Can Win”
United States
Official slogan: “Please let us beat Ghana!”
Hilarious.
+1 good stuff. Especially Brazil’s “real translation.”
Yep. Good stuff.
I laughed out loud at Germany’s. It’s depressing how juvenile my sense of humor is.
Brazil: “Must win the Cup, so the country doesn’t burn up!”
Nike’s “Risk Everything” slogan is pretty good.
Just to clarify: these slogans were not submitted by the soccer federations. Hyundai and FIFA organized an online poll for fans to vote on submissions from fans. (Well, supposedly from fans. We all know Qatar came up with all of these.)
Its hard to make a slogan like this without being generic or corny. I’m a big fan of Bosnia’s and Cameroon’s
Impossible is not a WORD lol
who the heck came up with that
Should have said, “Impossimubble is not a word.”
‘Hamburguer is not a french word’
Seriously. Ummm…..you just put it in your slogan….clearly it is a word.
How about something like, “A word to describe something that can not exist does not have a French equivalent.” It would still be wrong, but not prima facie wrong.
The person that miss-translated the phrase for this article. It would be better translated as, “Impossible is not French.”
The problem seems to be more with the translation – literally, the slogan means “Impossible is not French,” so it could also be translated “Impossible is not a French concept” or “The idea ‘impossible’ is not meaningful to the French” or something along those lines.
I’m not a scholar of the language, but I read it with a sense similar to that of the “Impossible is nothing” campaign that (I think) Adidas ran some years ago.
Sorry, Aaron, I realize I duplicated some of your comment – I didn’t see it before I posted.
No worries!
Ceci n’est pas une pipe.
The Swiss forgot to add “…as tourists” to the end of theirs
Australia – the ringing phone is my kids under 6 team- they want their slogan back!
I think Dan left out part of Mexico’s slogan. I believe the actual slogan reads thusly: “Always United (States bails us out), Always Aztecas.”
Nice work.
I would also add, “…Always Aztecas (and Occasionally Mayans, But We Don’t Talk About Them Because They Said That If We Won, The World Would End)”
I thought Mexico’s slogan was “Thank you, Saint Zusi! / Gracias, San Zusi!”
That should be it. BTW the word ‘Aztecas’ excludes the majority of the country. It’s like if the USA’s one was “Always together, always Appalachians!”
If Mexico wins the world cup, would the official Victor’s parade be held in Texas or California?
California. It’s already called the second capital of Mexico
LOVE BOSNIA’s. I feel like they should star in “The Game of Thrones”:
“Dragons in Heart, Dragons on the Field!” / Zmajevi U Scru…Zmajevi Na Terenu! (Bosnian)
Cameroon is definitely House Lannister
Are we going to equate national teams to Game of Thrones houses? Because I can get behind that.
USA is obviously Daenerys then…the next big thing in global soccer since approximately 1994.
Spain is House Baratheon. La Furia Roja / “Ours is the Fury”? Current champions, always lording over the others how they’ve got the strongest players?
Have seen this for MLS?
http://www.burgundywave.com/2014/4/22/5638196/game-of-thrones-soccer-mls-what
cute. a lot of stretches but hey why not.
Brazil gets to be the Starks here.
Brace yourself, the sixth is coming. Sounds an awful lot like “winter is coming”
The Starks and Brazilians both seem to have a hard time building things and they are both pretty fond of beheading’s.
Not to mention the Brazilian players are spread all over the globe (similar to the Stark children)
France = Stannis
What about Brazil’s? “Brace yourselves, the sixth is coming.”
Why even play the games? Brazil’s claiming this one as a victory.
And apparently they will meet the Swiss in the final.
These are all kinds of awesome. Hopping our way into history. Real men wear orange. Indeed!
Chi Chi Chi!, Le Le Le!
Sounds like 4 year old came up with that. 😀
It was a last-minute submission. Organizers forgot that Chile was in the tournament and had to jot something down during the press release.
It actually a very popular chant in Chile. whether at a futbol game or in the street. It actually should end with Vive Chile!!! hence it rhymes and has a foot stop at the end.
I like it better now. Still I don’t think it is a slogan.
Chanting “U.S.A., U.S.A., U.S.A.” wouldn’t qualify either
As a kid growing up with everything Chileno I can tell you this chant is not new. As Spectra said this is chanted all the time at games and parades etc.
KingGoog: Pretty funny. Chile may be overlooked in COMBEBOL but this years team is very good. I expect them to advance as the number two team from their group after Spain. The Netherlands are going to get steamrolled by Chile even though and I can’t wait.
Really fascinating. I love the tongue-in-cheek banter between Belgium and France’s slogans. Some of these may be a little strange to English-speaking ears (like Russia and Korea), but I’m sure they translate perfectly to the native speakers.
With an Uncle and cousins who are Australian so I’m saying this with love…they shouldn’t even be allowed in the World Cup for making that silly of a slogan.
AS an Australian, I’m not sure we should be in the World Cup with a slogan like that.
They didn’t make it. KIA Motors ran an Internet Poll.
Whoops, Hyundai, not KIA.
Boycott KIA!!!!
Funniest: Netherlands
Saddest: French
Most apt: South Korea
Personal favorite: Italy’s. Just sounds Italian.
Lamest: Australia
Argentina’s sounds like a public service announcement: “And Remember: We’re Not Just A Team, We Are A Country Ya Know!”
You think the French slogan is sad? My vote is for Chile.
impossible isn’t a french word, but they sure have endeared themselves to it.
Are we sure these cliches weren’t taken from RGIII’s twitter?
“Kick the ball like nobody is watching. Play hard like you’ve never been hurt.”
Last WC was better when USA used Indivisible.
Confusing: South Korea.
The Reds? What does N. Korea have to do to own that moniker?
“A team’s slogan doesn’t necessarily have an effect on how they play on the field,”
Thanks for making that clear.
Lol… I thought this as well.
That would actually be a better team slogan than some of these.
(btw, who are you quoting?)
That’s too bad because I’d like to see the Socceroos literally hop around the pitch.
Cahill probably will be hopping around – MLS has taken a toll on him
I don’t think these are official slogans. I’m pretty sure the Australian one is just what has been written on their buses and they are angry about it.
Oh it’s actually much worse… “FIFA announced the results of a slogan competition run by Korean car company Hyundai, one of the tournament’s sponsors.”
So people (likely Korean’s since that’s the home nation of the sponsor in charge) on the Internet came up with these slogans.
Unless you jinx yourself as Brazil has…