You can hear this in a French football conversation:
“You are a Footix”
but,
What is a Footix in French culture?
As you can see in the word “Footix”, you can see the word “Foot”. Yes, this is linked with the number one sport in France: Football. The real one, not the one that the Americans robbed the word from us 😉 Even if, football is the number one sport in France, the French people use Football or Foot to say Football. They did not change anything with the word compared to other European countries like Spain where they say “fútbol” or in Germany with “Fußball”. The point I want to make is that even if football is the number one sport in France, not all French people are huge fans of this sport. By the way, I wrote an article about Football in France if are interested 😊
Where is coming from the word Footix?
For that, we have to go back to the glorious year 1998 for French football (We can now add 2018). France was hosting the FIFA World Cup and like every world cup and every big sports event, there is a mascot. France went for this one on the photo cover.
The name of this mascot? You have guessed I am sure… Footix! It was a rooster, a symbol of France.
What is the meaning of being a Footix?
Before the 98 World Cup, the French team was not doing so well and the press was really hard on the team and especially on the head coach Aimé Jacquet. Most of the newspapers did not think that France was going to play well during this competition. Most of the French people were not supporting the French team and some of them were supporting prestigious teams like Brazil one. During the competition, France went step after step to the final and more and more French people were starting to support the team. Here is a famous video of the French President Jacques Chirac when the players were announced by the speaker at the final. I am pretty sure you are going to laugh:
So, when the team reach the final and won 3-0 against Brazil in the Stade de France, all the French were crazy about the team. The Champs Elysées was full of people celebrating the final victory.
The French that was supporting the French team since the beginning started to call the other supporters “Footix”, meaning they are not real supporters and they don’t know much about football.
Nowadays, the word “Footix” can be considered the worst insult to say to another football fan meaning they don’t know football or they start to follow a particular team because this one is winning like in France the football team of Paris: the Paris Saint Germain aka PSG or in Europe it would be the Real Madrid, the FC Barcelona or the Juventus.
Did you know this French slang? Do you want me to explain other French slang? Let me know in the comment section 🙂 From now, I invite you to read the article about the French verlan.