Panna and the nutmeg: street football's favourite trick
Where the word nutmeg comes from, what it is called around the world, and how the Dutch street game Panna Knock-Out turned it into a one-on-one sport.
Every street footballer knows the feeling: the ball rolls through your legs, your opponent collects it behind you, and everyone watching laughs. In English it is a nutmeg. In the Netherlands it is panna, and there it gave its name to a whole game.
What a nutmeg is
A nutmeg is a skill in which the ball is kicked, rolled or dribbled between an opponent’s legs. It can be a pass or a shot, but it is most associated with dribbling, because it lets a player get past a defender in one move. It is effective and visually impressive, which is why players try it again and again.
Some of the best-known exponents include Juan Román Riquelme, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Robinho, Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, Lionel Messi, Tobin Heath, Eden Hazard and Luis Suárez. Suárez was so fond of it at Liverpool that fans made a banner: “Suárez can nutmeg a Mermaid”.
Where the word comes from
Nobody is completely sure. Three explanations circulate:
- Anatomy. According to Alex Leith’s book Over the Moon, Brian, “nuts” refers to the testicles of the player through whose legs the ball passes, and “nutmeg” is a development of that.
- Cockney rhyming slang, in which “nutmeg” has been suggested to mean “leg”.
- A trade scam. Peter Seddon, in Football Talk, suggests that 19th-century exporters shipping nutmegs from North America to England mixed wooden fakes into the sacks. Being “nutmegged” came to mean being tricked. This is the theory the Oxford English Dictionary supports.
An early written use is in Brian Glanville’s 1977 novel A Bad Lot.
One trick, many names
The nutmeg has dozens of names around the world, and many are wonderfully specific:
| Country or language | Name | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Netherlands (slang) | panna | “gate”, from Surinamese Sranan Tongo |
| France | petit pont | little bridge |
| Brazil | caneta, janelinha | pen, little window |
| Cape Verde | lavagem | wash |
| Angola | caguero | — |
| Spanish-speaking countries | caño, túnel | spout, tunnel |
| Germany | Tunnel, Beinschuss | tunnel, leg shot |
| Austria | Gurkerl | little pickled cucumber |
| Egypt and Saudi Arabia | kobry | bridge |
Panna Knock-Out: the trick becomes a game
In the Netherlands, the nutmeg became the basis of a street football game called Panna Knock-Out. Players face off one on one. The aim is to nutmeg (panna) your opponent; a successful panna eliminates them, and the last player standing wins. The game is played in panna cages: small enclosures with two small goals and an asphalt surface.
It is street football at its purest. There are no teams, no positions and no tactics beyond the duel. Just close control, feints and the nerve to try the trick in front of a crowd.
A darker playground version
Not every nutmeg game is harmless. In France and other French-speaking regions, children sometimes play “petit pont massacreur”, in which a player who is nutmegged becomes a target that the others are allowed to kick until he reaches a safe spot. In the 2000s the game received heavy media coverage after children were hospitalised. A similar game in the UK is called “nutmeg rush”. Anyone running youth football should know these games exist; our safeguarding guide covers the basics.
FAQ
What is a nutmeg in football?
Playing the ball through an opponent’s legs, usually to dribble past them.
What is panna?
The Dutch slang word for a nutmeg, from Surinamese Sranan Tongo, and the name of the one-on-one street game Panna Knock-Out.
What is the nutmeg called in Portuguese?
In Brazil it is called caneta or janelinha, among other names; in Cape Verde, lavagem.
Conclusion
The nutmeg is the trick that best captures street football: cheeky, skilful and slightly humiliating. Panna turned it into a sport of its own. For other skills born on the street, read about freestyle football, or compare street football with futsal.