Characteristic Words in a Football Magazine:
A Corpus Study for ESP Material Development
2025 Volume 12 Pages 84-103
Details
2025 Volume 12 Pages 84-103
Even though English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has recently received notable attention in English language education, ESP material development has not progressed sufficiently except in a few fields. One of the under-researched fields is ESP for sports fans. This study attempts to uncover characteristic words in a football (soccer) magazine by utilizing a corpus and to reveal the words that learners wishing to gain football-related information in English should learn. To achieve this goal, a characteristic word list from a football magazine corpus created by the authors was compared with the vocabulary list of the New JACET 8000, a norm frequency vocabulary list for English learners in Japan. Consequently, 472 characteristic words in a football magazine were identified and 169 words that readers of English football magazines in Japan are recommended to learn were determined. These words included football terms (e.g., winger), words commonly used in sports (e.g., defender), words related to winning or losing (e.g., defeat), words related to medical care and body parts (e.g., injury), transfer market words (e.g., loan), business words (e.g., partnership), and words to describe performances of teams and players (e.g., stunning).
The recent development in globalization and ICT has enabled people to access information worldwide, purchase goods from overseas, and receive services provided by foreign companies and educational institutions. Consequently, people’s interests are becoming more complex and diverse. For example, many young people nowadays are interested in foreign sports leagues, foreign celebrities’ posts on social media, and foreign streaming services, which few people could enjoy a couple of decades ago. Under these circumstances, it is essential to provide English education that matches learners’ individual needs. One area that has attempted to address this issue is English for Specific Purposes (ESP), which is “a type of language education that helps learners to effectively carry out a specific task” (Terauchi, 2010, p. 6).
ESP research began in the 1960s when criticism emerged around the use of literature as the main teaching material in many English classes regardless of learners’ needs (Terauchi, 2010). Since then, various research methods, such as register analysis, rhetoric analysis, and needs analysis, have contributed to ESP development (Dudley-Evans & St. John, 1998). In the 21st century, ESP was further developed by genre analysis, which analyzes spoken and written texts in a certain discourse community (Terauchi, 2010). Tojo (2016) claimed that genre analysis has accelerated ESP research in Japan. In recent years, many English teachers in Japan have adopted ESP and shared their practices (e.g., Shigyo et al., 2021 ; Ueda & Kanda, 2019; Yamashita & Fuyuno, 2016).
In ESP practice, creating reliable materials is necessary because, unlike general English teaching materials, ESP materials often do not exist. A common way to create such materials is to clarify important vocabulary in the genre by utilizing a corpus. A corpus is “an electronically stored, searchable collection of texts” (Jones & Waller, 2015, p. 5). Leech et al. (2001) stated that a corpus can be stored and retrieved on a computer, and the frequency of words in the corpus can be analyzed and listed using a computer program. Thus, if texts of a certain genre are analyzed by a corpus, a frequency list of the vocabulary contained in it can be created. For example, Ishikawa (2004) conducted a corpus-based study on the material development of judiciary ESP. By comparing the corpus created from the website of the U.S. Federal Judiciary with the one-million-word corpus of American English called the Frown Corpus, he presented a vocabulary list for college law students.
However, despite the growing number of ESP studies including that by Ishikawa (2004), ESP materials have not been sufficiently developed except in a few fields such as nursing (Osawa, 2021). This makes it difficult for many learners to find helpful materials that enable them to achieve their English learning goals efficiently. Teachers may also find it difficult to design classes that match their students’ needs or introduce learning materials that satisfy them. Therefore, further development of ESP materials is required.
The genre this study focuses on is football (soccer) magazines. Football is one of the most popular sports in Japan. Many fans are interested not only in domestic football leagues but also in European football leagues because major European leagues are usually regarded as being on a higher level than the Japanese leagues and most of the greatest Japanese football players belong to European teams. To obtain the latest and most detailed information about European football, learning English is necessary because many of the best European football-related articles are published in English magazines (e.g., The Athletic, FourFourTwo, Sky Sports). It used to be difficult to have access to these articles in Japan. However, the development of distribution services and the Internet made them more accessible. Thus, the demand for improving English football magazine reading skills seems to be growing among football fans in Japan.
Despite the popularity of football, football ESP remains under-researched. Among the few studies on football ESP is that of Nishijo (2017, 2021). Nishijo (2017) analyzed the functions and narrative structures of the speech of native English-speaking football coaches and compared them with the English used by Japanese coaches. This study suggested what Japanese English learners hoping to work as football coaches abroad should learn, such as the proper words and skills to use in the field. Nishijo (2021) offered an ESP program to learners who wished to work abroad as football coaches or players. The program instructors were three football coaches with experience in teaching football in English. The participants received English coaching from them, analyzed their English, and practiced using the English knowledge in tasks. The results revealed that the participants developed an awareness of discipline-specific vocabulary, grammar, and genre structure.
Even though Nishijo’s studies provided valuable insights into football ESP, his practices did not target football fans who hoped to read football-related English articles, but those who were interested in teaching or playing football abroad2. In addition, his research method for identifying important vocabulary in the field does not seem sophisticated enough because he only collected linguistic data from a few people, which is a small sample size. Therefore, this study aimed to provide an English vocabulary list for European football fans in Japan and English teachers who may teach them through a corpus analysis of a world-famous football magazine. The specific research questions (RQs) are as follows:RQ1: What are the characteristic words in the football magazine?RQ2: Among the characteristic words in the football magazine, which words are recommended for football fans in Japan to learn?
This ESP study focuses on reading football magazines. Therefore, a corpus of a major football magazine was created. The magazine analyzed in this study is FourFourTwo (https://www.fourfourtwo.com/). Since its first publication in 1994, this magazine has been recognized for its prestige. It is published by a British publishing company, Future, and all the articles are written in British English. The name FourFourTwo is a reference to the 4-4-2 formation associated with English football. The magazine has a wide range of football-related articles, including match guides, quizzes, and interviews, which make it an effective tool for building readers’ football knowledge. As a British magazine, its articles are mainly about the English league. As of January 2025, there are many Japanese players in the English league, such as Takehiro Tomiyasu (Arsenal FC), Kaoru Mitoma (Brighton & Hove Albion), and Wataru Endo (Liverpool Football Club), and their media exposure is increasing. This indicates that demand for the magazine may be rising in Japan.
Ishikawa (2021) claimed that, corpus data should be collected according to clear rules. Therefore, the following rules were set.
Months with 31 days... 1st, 11th, 16th of the months
Months with 30 days... 5th, 6th, 21st of the months
February... 6th, 10th, 26th
Collecting data according to the above rules prevents arbitrariness and allows for proper collection. Among the collected data, the following items were excluded.
Through this process, a football magazine, consisting of 436,249 tokens and 15,128 different types was created.
2.2 AnalysisTo address the RQs, this study compared the word list of the football magazine (target list) with a frequency English vocabulary list for English learners in Japan (reference list).
Target List. The word list tool in AntConc (Anthony, 2023) was used to create the target list. The tool can sort the words in the corpus according to their frequency and present them as an ordered list.
Lemmatization (Plisson et al., 2004) is the preliminary process for creating this list. Lemmatization combines words with different conjugations and spellings into a single headword. For example, “like” has the conjugated forms “likes” and “liked,” and these are treated as the headword, “like.” This process makes it possible to treat a word family as a single word in order of frequency, regardless of their conjugated forms. The lemmatization was conducted using TagAnt (Anthony, 2022), an application created by Laurence Anthony that lemmatizes and tags word data and files.
Reference List. The New JACET 8000 (JACET Vocabulary Research Group, 2016) was used as the reference list. This is a norm frequency list of 8000 basic English words that English learners in Japan should learn. The list was created based on a corpus of common English texts among English learners in Japan (e.g., junior and senior high school English textbooks in Japan, English language newspapers in Japan). The New JACET 8000 has been used in ESP studies. For example, Osawa (2021) used it to compare the difficulty levels of extracted medical-related terms, and found that approximately a quarter of the total words should be taught in medical ESP classes.
Ways of Comparison. To address RQ1, the words that appeared notably more frequently in the football magazine corpus (target list) than in the New JACET 8000 (reference list) were selected. The comparison was limited to words that appeared in the target list with a frequency of 15 or more times—1,529th or higher. In this study, when the gap in rankings was 1000 or more, the word was considered a characteristic word. For example, for the 500th most frequent word in the target list to be considered a characteristic word, it must be ranked 1500th or lower in frequency in the reference list. The reason why 1000-word gap was adopted as a criterion of choosing characteristic words was that “1000” is a notable difference. The Japanese Course of Study states that the number of English words that should be taught in elementary, junior high, and senior high schools are respectively 600–700, 1,600–1,800, and 1,800–2,500 (MEXT, 2018). This means that, for instance, the 600th most frequent word is for elementary school, 1600th is for junior high school, and 2600th is for senior high school. In other words, when the frequency level differs by 1000, the education levels in which the words are taught may be different. This shows that 1000 difference in the frequency ranking is significant. After extracting characteristic words, similar words were grouped, and category names were given to each group in order to consider the kinds of words that are likely to become characteristic words in football magazines.
To address RQ2, words that were not included in the top 4000 words of the New JACET 8000 were extracted from the list of characteristic words. “Top 4000” was chosen because, according to the Course of Study (MEXT, 2018), at least 4000 words should be mastered by graduation from high school. Therefore, words that are not included in the 4000 most frequent words of the New JACET 8000’s may not be studied in schools. For these reasons, the words that appeared in the vocabulary list for RQ1 (i.e., characteristic words), but did not appear in the top 4000 frequent words in the New JACET 8000 were regarded as words that English football magazine readers in Japan are recommended to learn as ESP learning.
The 472 characteristic words identified from the football magazine corpus are presented in the Appendix. Many words in the list can be classified into one of the following categories.
Among the 472 characteristic words, 169 of them (see Table 1) were not included in the top 4000 in the New JACET 8000. Thus, these can be considered as words that English football magazine readers in Japan are recommended to learn as ESP learning.
| vs | arguably | disclaimer | overhaul |
| squad | consecutive | knockdown | attendance |
| midfielder | grind | trustworthy | continental |
| referee | amid | legendary | executive |
| striker | commentator | assault | upcoming |
| fixture | breach | turf | regulator |
| defender | decent | equalise | touchline |
| midfield | foul | potentially | tout |
| clash | takeover | speculation | clinical |
| VAR | iconic | brace | creativity |
| trophy | superb | disallow | scrap |
| goalkeeper | anthem | hamstring | gifted |
| relegation | prolific | shootout | substitution |
| debut | stoppage | elite | trajectory |
| derby | anonymous | orient | clinch |
| winger | pursuit | tactic | authentic |
| doorstep | superstar | clause | endure |
| premium | offside | jersey | stability |
| footballer | consistency | bolster | subsequently |
| subscriber | outing | midweek | cult |
| reportedly | wonderkid | winless | destine |
| rumour | optimism | optimistic | duo |
| bid | rape | attacker | footage |
| tier | spark | hugely | sensational |
| scorer | outfit | finalist | swap |
| defensive | youngster | arena | tricky |
| concede | matchday | desperate | shortlist |
| comply | sideline | lengthy | coverage |
| triumph | controversy | mentality | disappointment |
| villain | successive | nickname | headline |
| academy | allege | dribble | integral |
| pantomime | radar | silverware | logo |
| knockout | replay | asset | migrant |
| opener | speedy | badge | rack |
| armband | tactical | republic | resign |
| relegate | dugout | smash | starter |
| stunning | stint | spectacular | brilliance |
| unbeaten | wale | consolation | dismal |
| sack | exposure | presenter | interim |
| goalscorer | sanction | reign | rebound |
| pundit | playmaker | cinch | underway |
| treble | brainy | crossbar | tick |
| equaliser |
Note. The words are lined up in order of the frequency ranking on the target list from the upper left to the lower right (i.e., vs → equaliser → arguably → tick).
Some words in the characteristic word list can be categorized into “football terms” (e.g., winger) and “words commonly used in sports” (e.g., defender). Because these technical terms are difficult to cover in school education, they should be learned in special contexts such as ESP classes. “Words related to winning or losing” (e.g., defeat) were also included in the list. Sports are competitive; therefore, words indicating the game’s winners and losers, as well as those describing enemies and opponents, appeared. “Words related to medical care and body parts” (e.g., injury) also occurred frequently because injuries are common in sports. When football players in popular teams are injured, the injured body parts and the operations they undergo are reported in football magazines. Furthermore, many “transfer market words” (e.g., loan) and “business words" (e.g., partnership) appeared. In football, recruiting competent players and acquiring rich financial resources are directly related to a team’s success; therefore, many football fans eagerly read articles about player recruitment and teams’ financial conditions. “Words to describe performances of teams and players” (e.g., stunning) is another common category because criticism of football games is one of the main contents of the magazine.
A notable finding from the categorization is that the characteristic words in the football magazine included not only football-specific terms but also the terms about sports in general, medicine, and business. Thus, vocabulary learning for football magazine reading may also be helpful for reading articles on various other topics.
This study aimed to identify the characteristic words in a world-famous football magazine (RQ1) and present a word list for English football magazine readers in Japan (RQ2). As a result of the analysis using the corpus, 472 characteristic words and 169 words for English football magazine readers in Japan were identified. These included technical terms that are not usually taught in the current Japanese education curriculum. In addition, the categorization of the characteristic words revealed that not only football-related words but also medical and business words frequently appear in the football magazine.
The outcome of the present study has potential of contributing to English education in Japan. Firstly, the vocabulary list from the present study (see Table 1) can be introduced to football fans in Japan who wish to self-learn football magazine reading in English. Referring to or memorizing the words in the list helps the magazine readers read English football articles fluently and enjoyably, which would contribute to further development of their English proficiency.
In addition, the list can be used to design and conduct English classes. For instance, English football-magazine reading classes can be offered as part of lifelong learning programs at universities3. Considering the rapid decline in Japan’s birthrate and the increasing older adult population, it is important for universities to provide attractive lifelong learning courses and increase the number of non-regular mature students. An English football magazine reading course will be intriguing for many people given the large number of football fans in Japan.
The vocabulary list in Table 1 can also be used in regular English classes for sports-major university students. For example, the list makes it possible to conduct a class as follows:
Football magazines are reading materials that most sports-major students would find enjoyable, making this activity highly motivating. In addition, many frequent words in football magazines—such as “words commonly used in sports” and “words related to medical care and body parts”—are important to learn even for students who do not specialize in football; thus, this activity provides a valuable vocabulary learning opportunity.
Another significance of the present study is the proposal of a possible method to create an ESP vocabulary list. As Hüttner et al. (2009) claimed, it is crucial for ESP teachers to possess a basic understanding of corpus analysis, enabling them to design effective ESP classes autonomously. The methodology employed in this study, including the use of the New JACET 8000 as the reference list and the selection process of words to teach/learn based on the Course of Study (MEXT, 2018), can be applicable for developing any vocabulary lists for ESP classes in Japan regardless of the genre. Thus, this research holds the potential to contribute to teacher education and autonomous professional development of ESP teachers in Japan.
5.2 LimitationsThough the present study provided valuable suggestions for football fans wishing to read football articles in English and for ESP teachers, it also has several limitations. First, the range of data collection was too narrow: 436,249 words collected from one magazine. Collecting more words from several football magazines in future studies can reveal more valuable data.
The second limitation was the method of comparison between the target and reference lists. Comparing the lists in terms of frequency was not the most sophisticated way of comparison. Ishikawa (2004) stated that frequency ratios are often used to compare two-word frequencies. However, their reliability decreases when the size of the mother data differs. In this study, the number of words collected between the target corpus and the New JACET 8000 also significantly differed. Therefore, following the data processing method of corpus-based word extraction in the study of Ishikawa (2004), future studies should extract words that occur frequently in the target corpus using the log-likelihood score (a statistical score referred to when comparing the frequencies of a certain word in two corpora with significantly different sizes).
Third, the parts of speech of the words in the characteristic word list were not analyzed. For example, bolster could be either a noun or a verb, but this study did not distinguish them. If this problem is solved, richer vocabulary information can be provided for the learners and teachers.
Fourth, it could be meaningful to use another reference corpus in future research. This study used the New JACET 8000 as the reference list because it targeted Japanese English learners and aimed to compare word lists. However, the New JACET 8000 is a vocabulary list for English learners in Japan and does not provide researchers with raw text data from which the list was created. Thus, it is unsuitable for examining, for instance, common collocations in a corpus or for statistical processing.
Finally, corpus analysis is just one of the many possible need-analysis methods, alongside interviews, surveys, and observations (Shimizu, 2010). To design an effective ESP course, data need to be collected using multiple methods beyond corpus. For instance, interviewing English learners who have successfully learned to read English football magazines fluently may provide valuable suggestions for designing a good football magazine reading course.
Despite these limitations, the present study serves as a valuable first step in the development of ESP for football fans. If the number of studies on ESP material development like this study increases, meaningful findings can be obtained for learners with specific English learning needs as well as English teachers.
We are grateful to Professor Masanori OYA (Meiji University) and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback on our earlier drafts.
1. This paper is partially based on the first author’s undergraduate thesis, which was submitted to the Faculty of Education, Shinshu University in January, 2024.
2. Previous ESP studies of other sports show a similar trend; while some studies targeting sports players and coaches can be seen (e.g., Benson & Coxhead, 2022), research targeting sports fans remains rare. Considering that there are presumably more sports fans than sports players and coaches, developing ESP classes and materials for sports fans appears valuable.
3. The vocabulary knowledge of students in a lifelong learning course may vary more than that of university students. Therefore, if football-magazine reading is taught in a lifelong learning course, it becomes especially important to carefully consider which words in the characteristic word list (see Appendix) should be introduced to each student, rather than simply introducing the words in the list of Table 1.
| Headword | Tar. rank | Ref. rank |
Headword | Tar. rank |
Ref. rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| league | 15 | 2857 | consistent | 1001 | 2807 |
| football | 55 | 1572 | improvement | 1001 | 2512 |
| final | 73 | 1093 | initially | 1001 | 3099 |
| manager | 92 | 1098 | sponsor | 1001 | 2847 |
| vs | 119 | 4592 | outing | 1001 | 6942 |
| stream | 122 | 2282 | wonderkid | 1001 | none |
| kick | 126 | 1370 | absence | 1019 | 2567 |
| stadium | 128 | 1321 | direct | 1019 | 2205 |
| squad | 147 | 4549 | encounter | 1019 | 2087 |
| deal | 158 | 1519 | permanent | 1019 | 2259 |
| midfielder | 166 | 7047 | recruitment | 1019 | 3700 |
| former | 170 | 2338 | tackle | 1019 | 3030 |
| available | 184 | 1460 | technical | 1019 | 2239 |
| beat | 195 | 1749 | optimism | 1019 | 6066 |
| term | 199 | 1516 | rape | 1019 | 5766 |
| referee | 200 | 6006 | criticise | 1041 | 2140 |
| striker | 208 | 5916 | guy | 1041 | 2342 |
| tournament | 212 | 1287 | spark | 1041 | 4415 |
| transfer | 212 | 1838 | outfit | 1041 | 5970 |
| defeat | 226 | 3336 | youngster | 1041 | 5794 |
| injury | 228 | 1689 | matchday | 1041 | none |
| competition | 232 | 1570 | sideline | 1041 | none |
| option | 232 | 1754 | comfortably | 1059 | 3584 |
| penalty | 232 | 3941 | controversy | 1059 | 4174 |
| career | 236 | 1520 | criticism | 1059 | 2679 |
| boss | 244 | 2863 | fellow | 1059 | 2578 |
| despite | 254 | 1484 | popular | 1059 | 2442 |
| fixture | 254 | 5186 | pose | 1059 | 2463 |
| defender | 260 | 5997 | signature | 1059 | 2450 |
| issue | 270 | 1464 | split | 1059 | 2776 |
| victory | 271 | 1620 | successive | 1059 | 4711 |
| position | 276 | 1463 | vital | 1059 | 2685 |
| midfield | 278 | 6512 | allege | 1059 | 6742 |
| contract | 284 | 2202 | radar | 1059 | 6120 |
| currently | 287 | 2219 | replay | 1059 | 7108 |
| clash | 291 | 5982 | incredibly | 1081 | 3393 |
| expect | 301 | 1511 | investment | 1081 | 2799 |
| VAR | 301 | none | leadership | 1081 | 2953 |
| trophy | 305 | 5855 | outlet | 1081 | 3605 |
| claim | 308 | 1716 | outstanding | 1081 | 3343 |
| accord | 310 | 1418 | seek | 1081 | 2494 |
| appearance | 318 | 1714 | significant | 1081 | 2193 |
| replace | 320 | 1852 | speedy | 1081 | 7266 |
| guarantee | 321 | 2056 | tactical | 1081 | 6559 |
| goalkeeper | 321 | 6429 | dugout | 1081 | none |
| pitch | 329 | 2586 | stint | 1081 | none |
| strike | 344 | 1885 | wale | 1081 | none |
| private | 351 | 1472 | competitive | 1106 | 2511 |
| likely | 355 | 1461 | crucial | 1106 | 2683 |
| loan | 377 | 2270 | exposure | 1106 | 4157 |
| mate | 381 | 2432 | massive | 1106 | 3087 |
| champion | 383 | 2686 | remarkable | 1106 | 2268 |
| due | 386 | 1639 | sanction | 1106 | 5813 |
| financial | 398 | 1500 | playmaker | 1106 | none |
| highlight | 403 | 2328 | basis | 1130 | 2199 |
| opposition | 408 | 2666 | commit | 1130 | 2964 |
| prove | 408 | 1664 | crisis | 1130 | 2354 |
| relegation | 414 | 7457 | failure | 1130 | 2214 |
| connection | 419 | 1722 | formation | 1130 | 3656 |
| debut | 430 | 4172 | grab | 1130 | 2602 |
| domestic | 430 | 2359 | reverse | 1130 | 2131 |
| fail | 435 | 1742 | brainy | 1130 | none |
| rival | 438 | 2758 | disclaimer | 1130 | none |
| struggle | 438 | 1809 | knockdown | 1130 | none |
| derby | 438 | none | trustworthy | 1130 | none |
| supporter | 442 | 2577 | boost | 1160 | 3683 |
| winger | 447 | 7102 | error | 1160 | 2273 |
| meanwhile | 457 | 2367 | insist | 1160 | 2404 |
| plus | 462 | 2351 | launch | 1160 | 2727 |
| quarter | 462 | 2218 | legendary | 1160 | 4022 |
| delivery | 466 | 2274 | truly | 1160 | 2246 |
| double | 475 | 1665 | assault | 1160 | 5758 |
| doorstep | 477 | 6849 | turf | 1160 | 6416 |
| premium | 477 | 4880 | equalise | 1160 | none |
| footballer | 482 | none | budget | 1185 | 2482 |
| opportunity | 486 | 1532 | delay | 1185 | 2299 |
| tough | 490 | 1630 | initial | 1185 | 2238 |
| substitute | 500 | 3592 | minister | 1185 | 2856 |
| via | 503 | 2691 | potentially | 1185 | 4553 |
| fit | 509 | 1695 | retain | 1185 | 2828 |
| subscriber | 509 | 5385 | slightly | 1185 | 2347 |
| reportedly | 514 | 6044 | speculation | 1185 | 5842 |
| admit | 519 | 1768 | brace | 1185 | none |
| entirely | 521 | 1656 | disallow | 1185 | none |
| assume | 525 | 2499 | hamstring | 1185 | none |
| demand | 525 | 1686 | shootout | 1185 | none |
| previous | 525 | 1528 | adapt | 1219 | 2323 |
| rumour | 525 | 4071 | creative | 1219 | 2508 |
| bid | 533 | 4540 | elite | 1219 | 4184 |
| tier | 533 | 7695 | faith | 1219 | 3318 |
| scorer | 545 | 7173 | invest | 1219 | 2310 |
| incredible | 555 | 2600 | investigation | 1219 | 2665 |
| defensive | 559 | 4175 | orient | 1219 | 4481 |
| feed | 559 | 1903 | peak | 1219 | 2272 |
| lack | 559 | 1566 | respectively | 1219 | 3487 |
| illegal | 565 | 1836 | slip | 1219 | 2414 |
| secure | 565 | 2532 | stuff | 1219 | 2341 |
| assist | 573 | 2431 | tactic | 1219 | 4650 |
| concede | 573 | 6896 | clause | 1219 | 5779 |
| credit | 577 | 2213 | jersey | 1219 | 7083 |
| holder | 577 | 3578 | bolster | 1219 | none |
| potential | 577 | 1604 | midweek | 1219 | none |
| resort | 583 | 2415 | winless | 1219 | none |
| ban | 588 | 1962 | awful | 1254 | 3760 |
| bench | 588 | 1949 | gap | 1254 | 2869 |
| comply | 588 | 4300 | historic | 1254 | 2701 |
| reveal | 588 | 2515 | multiple | 1254 | 2504 |
| spell | 588 | 2101 | optimistic | 1254 | 4641 |
| virtual | 588 | 3376 | reference | 1254 | 2801 |
| attempt | 605 | 1625 | seemingly | 1254 | 3142 |
| deny | 605 | 2986 | strengthen | 1254 | 3034 |
| exit | 605 | 2449 | tight | 1254 | 2718 |
| progress | 605 | 1640 | whom | 1254 | 2557 |
| division | 615 | 2483 | attacker | 1254 | 7690 |
| confirm | 620 | 1993 | hugely | 1254 | 7785 |
| impressive | 620 | 1891 | finalist | 1254 | none |
| youth | 620 | 2560 | arena | 1288 | 4257 |
| legend | 626 | 3020 | aside | 1288 | 2496 |
| triumph | 626 | 5829 | collar | 1288 | 3823 |
| involve | 636 | 1769 | commission | 1288 | 2661 |
| decade | 642 | 1686 | deadline | 1288 | 3166 |
| super | 642 | 2582 | desperate | 1288 | 4545 |
| doubt | 652 | 1718 | nowhere | 1288 | 2588 |
| arrival | 657 | 2281 | officially | 1288 | 2741 |
| exclusive | 657 | 3667 | oversee | 1288 | 3244 |
| villain | 663 | 7881 | presence | 1288 | 2484 |
| academy | 668 | 4548 | qualification | 1288 | 3185 |
| compete | 668 | 1952 | recruit | 1288 | 3717 |
| defend | 668 | 2713 | revenue | 1288 | 3096 |
| further | 668 | 2187 | suspension | 1288 | 3381 |
| recommend | 668 | 2002 | vision | 1288 | 2360 |
| depart | 677 | 2479 | lengthy | 1288 | 6095 |
| fantastic | 677 | 2045 | mentality | 1288 | 6851 |
| brilliant | 687 | 3324 | nickname | 1288 | 6777 |
| wing | 687 | 1908 | dribble | 1288 | none |
| opponent | 691 | 1964 | silverware | 1288 | none |
| era | 702 | 2968 | accuse | 1332 | 3339 |
| expectation | 702 | 1848 | asset | 1332 | 4162 |
| obviously | 702 | 2340 | badge | 1332 | 5034 |
| pantomime | 702 | none | convert | 1332 | 2460 |
| rebuild | 715 | 3595 | frustration | 1332 | 3983 |
| knockout | 715 | 5603 | harsh | 1332 | 3140 |
| alongside | 721 | 2528 | largely | 1332 | 2800 |
| threat | 721 | 2355 | partnership | 1332 | 3486 |
| ultimately | 721 | 2684 | pride | 1332 | 2878 |
| opener | 721 | 6859 | queen | 1332 | 2563 |
| armband | 721 | none | reduction | 1332 | 2506 |
| relegate | 721 | none | republic | 1332 | 4537 |
| stunning | 721 | none | smash | 1332 | 5296 |
| ideal | 739 | 1758 | spectacular | 1332 | 4589 |
| replacement | 739 | 2534 | ultimate | 1332 | 3944 |
| unbeaten | 739 | 6854 | wage | 1332 | 2981 |
| lift | 747 | 1916 | consolation | 1332 | 6989 |
| platform | 747 | 1935 | presenter | 1332 | 7719 |
| qualify | 747 | 3157 | reign | 1332 | 6085 |
| deliver | 759 | 1934 | cinch | 1332 | none |
| elsewhere | 759 | 2373 | crossbar | 1332 | none |
| slice | 759 | 2097 | overhaul | 1332 | none |
| sack | 769 | 6030 | altogether | 1375 | 2708 |
| keeper | 777 | 3280 | attendance | 1375 | 4207 |
| goalscorer | 777 | none | await | 1375 | 3706 |
| settle | 785 | 1923 | comparison | 1375 | 2387 |
| suspend | 785 | 3681 | continental | 1375 | 4252 |
| pundit | 785 | none | dominant | 1375 | 3484 |
| treble | 785 | none | ease | 1375 | 2429 |
| boot | 791 | 1858 | edition | 1375 | 3481 |
| crown | 791 | 3323 | excitement | 1375 | 2978 |
| equaliser | 791 | none | executive | 1375 | 4842 |
| automatically | 802 | 2420 | fancy | 1375 | 3405 |
| gear | 802 | 2879 | genius | 1375 | 3380 |
| odd | 802 | 2375 | intense | 1375 | 2971 |
| status | 802 | 2200 | managerial | 1375 | 3723 |
| zone | 802 | 2809 | protest | 1375 | 2891 |
| assistance | 811 | 2258 | punch | 1375 | 3850 |
| arguably | 811 | 6389 | upcoming | 1375 | 4372 |
| aim | 818 | 1892 | regulator | 1375 | 6355 |
| capacity | 818 | 2492 | touchline | 1375 | none |
| consecutive | 818 | 4013 | tout | 1375 | none |
| possession | 818 | 3954 | ambitious | 1430 | 3397 |
| regard | 818 | 1833 | clinical | 1430 | 4154 |
| glory | 834 | 3355 | creativity | 1430 | 4012 |
| knock | 834 | 2047 | define | 1430 | 2501 |
| ownership | 834 | 3125 | expire | 1430 | 3646 |
| grind | 834 | 5501 | extension | 1430 | 3113 |
| amid | 844 | 4638 | immediate | 1430 | 2495 |
| deserve | 844 | 2610 | maker | 1430 | 2537 |
| promote | 844 | 1865 | mere | 1430 | 3475 |
| blow | 854 | 1996 | regulation | 1430 | 3100 |
| departure | 858 | 2738 | scrap | 1430 | 5047 |
| particularly | 858 | 2190 | shortly | 1430 | 2579 |
| commentator | 858 | 6692 | gifted | 1430 | 5835 |
| breach | 875 | 4588 | substitution | 1430 | 7363 |
| celebration | 875 | 2021 | trajectory | 1430 | 7993 |
| chairman | 875 | 3792 | clinch | 1430 | none |
| chase | 875 | 2053 | absolute | 1478 | 2700 |
| decent | 875 | 4573 | authentic | 1478 | 4294 |
| hopefully | 875 | 2984 | automatic | 1478 | 2997 |
| recover | 875 | 1999 | drag | 1478 | 3009 |
| sort | 875 | 2189 | endure | 1478 | 4370 |
| foul | 875 | 6494 | extraordinary | 1478 | 2699 |
| bounce | 903 | 3730 | impose | 1478 | 2827 |
| capable | 903 | 2380 | monitor | 1478 | 2540 |
| ensure | 903 | 2487 | prospect | 1478 | 3114 |
| retire | 903 | 2096 | significantly | 1478 | 2802 |
| unlikely | 903 | 2377 | stability | 1478 | 4165 |
| takeover | 903 | 6201 | subsequently | 1478 | 4177 |
| ambition | 914 | 3397 | transform | 1478 | 3027 |
| iconic | 914 | none | update | 1478 | 3718 |
| apparently | 922 | 2349 | cult | 1478 | 6055 |
| appoint | 922 | 2980 | destine | 1478 | 6434 |
| dominate | 922 | 3151 | duo | 1478 | 6731 |
| fitness | 922 | 3497 | footage | 1478 | 6565 |
| happily | 922 | 3764 | sensational | 1478 | 7010 |
| inspire | 922 | 2315 | swap | 1478 | 6680 |
| rob | 922 | 2941 | tricky | 1478 | 6210 |
| controversial | 939 | 3658 | shortlist | 1478 | none |
| dressing | 939 | 3994 | barely | 1529 | 2960 |
| emerge | 939 | 2279 | coverage | 1529 | 4151 |
| solid | 939 | 2678 | disappointment | 1529 | 4666 |
| superb | 939 | 4605 | headline | 1529 | 4726 |
| anthem | 939 | 7599 | integral | 1529 | 4823 |
| prolific | 939 | 7925 | joint | 1529 | 2673 |
| stoppage | 939 | none | logo | 1529 | 4385 |
| legal | 961 | 2481 | migrant | 1529 | 5185 |
| load | 961 | 2527 | philosophy | 1529 | 2694 |
| profile | 961 | 3491 | rack | 1529 | 4273 |
| teammate | 961 | 3880 | resign | 1529 | 4937 |
| anonymous | 981 | 4245 | starter | 1529 | 4054 |
| honour | 981 | 1998 | sweep | 1529 | 2630 |
| prior | 981 | 3109 | transition | 1529 | 2703 |
| pursuit | 981 | 4629 | brilliance | 1529 | 7741 |
| regardless | 981 | 2820 | dismal | 1529 | 7297 |
| superstar | 981 | 7278 | interim | 1529 | 6031 |
| offside | 981 | none | rebound | 1529 | 7988 |
| absolutely | 1001 | 2345 | underway | 1529 | 6442 |
| consistency | 1001 | 4269 | tick | 1529 | none |
Note. “Tar. rank” = the frequency ranking of the target list (football journal corpus). “Ref. rank” = the frequency ranking of the reference list (the New JACET 8000). The words in bold are those English football magazine readers are recommended to learn as ESP learning.
