Men's International Soccer Nicknames Quiz

Three lions feature on the crest of the England soccer team which reflects the logo of the sport's national governing body, the Football Association (FA). The FA's usage of the three lions is itself a nod to the prominence of the symbol in the heraldic traditions of the monarchy and aristocracy of the United Kingdom and its predecessors.

The emblem was immortalised in the "Three Lions" song of 1996 by Frank Skinner, David Baddiel and the Lightning Seeds. On the surface this is just another cheesy sports song ("Snooker Loopy"' anyone?), but obscured by the hilariously cheap production values is a sense of melancholy and longing for a bygone era (1966). If you give the song the time of day (admittedly hard to do), the irony, history and symbolism of the lyric "football's coming home" is tinged with sadness.

The Ghanaian national soccer squad takes its nickname - The Black Stars - from the black star that features at the centre of the flag of Ghana. Also known as the Black Star of Africa, the symbol represents the African continent's emancipation from colonial rule; whilst the Black Star of Africa has relevance to the entire continent, the Ghanaians have embraced the symbol as a national one.

Ghana is one of Africa's more successful footballing nations with The Black Stars winning the Africa Cup of Nations on multiple occasions (1963, 1965, 1978 and 1982) and reaching the quarter-finals of the 2010 FIFA World Cup held in South Africa. In South Africa, Ghana lost to Uruguay after a penalty shoot-out but the game would be remembered for Uruguay's Luis Suarez deliberately and notoriously blocking an otherwise certain Ghanaian goal with his hand. For this he received a red card but the act ultimately saved Uruguay from elimination as the subsequent penalty kick in the 120th minute was missed.

Lebanon - The Cedars - is one of many national soccer teams that takes its nickname from an emblem that features on the nation's flag. In the case of Lebanon the emblem is the cedar and this particular connection between country and tree is referenced on numerous occasions in the Bible.

Despite Lebanon fielding a national squad since the 1930s, moderate success on the international stage only really started to occur on a semi-regular basis in the 21st century with multiple appearances in the group stages of the Asian Cup.

An interesting article from the Gambian newspaper "The Standard" headlined "Scorpions: The history behind the name" delves into the nickname for The Gambia's national football team and outlines that the Scorpions moniker came about largely because the squad didn't already officially have one and others in the Western Africa region did! Not to be left out, the small country surrounded by Senegal, decided upon the nickname of the Scorpions after canvassing the public for their ideas.

The article quotes a former Gambian Sports Minister as saying, "Like The Gambia, the Scorpion is small, but when it stings, you know it's no joke".

The Netherlands and the colour orange go hand in hand. Despite being removed from the country's flag in the 17th century, orange is still the colour of choice when it comes to matters of monarchy, pageantry and sport.

Nicknamed the Oranje, the Dutch soccer team are frequently present at the business end of international competitions but often fall at the final hurdle. The team in the orange strip reached the final of the FIFA World Cup - and lost - in 1974, 1978 and 2010, the latter of which was a notoriously ill-disciplined affair between the Netherlands and Spain involving fourteen yellow cards and one red card!

The European country of Croatia has a distinct checkerboard of red and white on its national flag and this design has given rise to the strip colour of the Croatian soccer team as well as their nickname of The Checkered Ones (Kockasti).

Immediately after joining the FIFA rankings in 1994 the Croatian side, also known as The Blazers (Vatreni), went from strength to strength. By 2018, Croatia had reached the final of the FIFA World Cup in Russia where they lost 4-2 to an indomitable French squad. In part reflecting Croatia's journey to the 2018 final in Moscow - which included knocking out the home nation on penalties - legendary midfielder Luka Modric was selected for the Best Player award.

A very frequent piece of trivia heard in pub quizzes and television game shows relates to the fact that Uruguay hosted - and won - the first ever FIFA World Cup way back in 1930. Slightly less frequently heard is that Uruguay won the World Cup for a second time in 1950, beating the Brazilian hosts in the final by two goals to one.

Rarely asked in said pub quizzes however would be a question related to the nickname of the Uruguay national soccer squad, though knowledge of the country's flag would point quizzers in the right direction. Uruguay go by the name of The Sky Blue (La Celeste). The flag of Uruguay features blue and white stripes with the Sun of May prominent in the top left corner. The most commonly used hexadecimal code used to generate the flag's blue colour is #0038a8 (royal azure).

The national soccer team of Bangladesh has two nicknames, the first reflecting the colour scheme of the national flag (Red and Green) and the second a more widely used reference to an iconic feline (Bengal Tigers). Being located on the Indian subcontinent, it is not a surprise that cricket takes the Bengal tiger's share of the national sporting limelight and soccer is somewhat left behind.

A vanishingly rare example of representation on the international stage came in 1980 when Bangladesh qualified for the group stages of the AFC Asian Cup held in Kuwait. Despite a fairly reasonable start at the competition with narrow losses against North Korea and Syria, Bangladesh would concede a combined total of thirteen goals in their defeats at the hands of Iran and China.

The Brazil national soccer team is often the envy of the rest of the footballing world and throughout sporting history, the Seleção Canarinho (Canary Squad) have been considered the team to beat. At the 2002 FIFA World Cup held jointly by Korea and Japan, Brazil became the first side to be permitted to sport five stars on their jersey, each star reflecting one of their five World Cup wins (1958, 1962, 1970, 1994 and 2002).

After Brazil's fifth success in 2002, European nations collectively improved their game with four different nations lifting the FIFA World Cup Trophy in the next four tournaments: Italy (2006), Spain (2010), Germany (2014) and France (2018). In 2022, Argentina brought the trophy back to the continent of South America, beating France in what was arguably one of the best finals in living memory.

The nickname of the Colombian national soccer team is Los Cafeteros which translates into English as The Coffee Growers; this reflects the country's status as one of the top producers and manufacturers of coffee beans anywhere in the world.

Los Cafeteros have not reached the same sustained levels of international success as that seen by fellow South American teams such as Brazil and Argentina but the side has won the very competitive Copa America, defeating Mexico in the 2001 final held in the Colombian capital, Bogotá.

The eagle-owl is not a traditional symbol of the Nordic country of Finland but after a member of this beautiful species interrupted a 2007 soccer match between Finland and Belgium, it was only natural that the unusual event was going to be celebrated in some way. There exists video footage of the eagle-owl perching on the crossbar of one of the goals before it took off and flew the length of the field to take a rest on the other crossbar! A splendid display indeed.

The crowd at the stadium loved the display and the Finnish national squad has been known as The Eagle-Owls (Huuhkajat) ever since. Oh, and Finland won the match 2-0.

The African nation of Uganda quite rightly celebrates the magnificent golden crested crane or grey crowned crane (Balearica regulorum); this splendid bird is explicitly featured on the Ugandan flag and lends itself to the nickname of the Uganda national football team, The Cranes.

In 1978, Uganda reached the final of the Africa Cup of Nations which was held in Accra, Ghana. Uganda lost 2-0 to the host nation after Opoku Afriye (Bayie) slotted two goals past the Ugandan goalkeeper. Ghana would go on to achieve additional success at the Africa Cup of Nations, winning the 1982 tournament hosted by Libya.