美式橄欖球 is the Chinese title for “American football” (not to be confused with international football known as soccer in the USA).

If you are a player or fan of American football, this will make a great wall scroll for your home.

The first two characters mean “American style.”
The last three characters mean football or rugby (a game involving an oblong or ovoid ball).
The “American” adjective is needed in this title to differentiate between Canadian football, Australian rules football, and rugby.

See Also:  Soccer

アメフト is a short word that means “American football” in Japanese.

It is supposed to sound like an abbreviated version, “ame futo” which sounds like “ah-may foot-oh” (American Football).

There's not a great standard way to say “football” in Japanese, as the sport is not popular in Japan. Other Japanese terms for football can be confused with soccer or rugby.

Note: Because this title is entirely Japanese Katakana, it should be written by a Japanese calligrapher.

See Also:  Soccer

アメリカンフットボール is the full/long title for “American football” in Japanese Katakana.

It is “Amerikan Futtoboru” which is supposed to sound like “American Football.”

Note: Because this title is entirely Japanese Katakana, it should be written by a Japanese calligrapher.

See Also:  Soccer

フットボール is one of a few different titles for football in Japan.

This one is supposed to sound like the international word “football / futbol.”

Note: This word is seldom if ever associated with the sport of American football.

Note: Because this title is entirely Japanese Katakana, it should be written by a Japanese calligrapher.

足球 is the word for football or soccer in Chinese.

As with most of the world, football is very popular in China. During the World Cup, the whole country seems to shut down to watch (regardless of whether Team China is playing or not).

Soccer is probably the 3rd most popular participation sport in China (after ping pong and badminton).

As you might expect, the first character means “foot” and the second character means “ball.”

FYI: This game would never be confused with American Football in Chinese. As with the rest of the world, there is a vague awareness of what American Football is (often described as "that game kind of like rugby").

For those familiar with American Football, there is some disgust regarding the fact that winners of the Superbowl call themselves "world champions" of a game that is only played in the USA. This is one of the reasons that jokes abound about how Americans are unaware that there is a world outside of their borders.

蹴球 is the title for football or soccer in Japanese Kanji and old Korean Hanja.

The sport is very popular in both Japan and Korea (Korea and Japan co-hosted the football World Cup in 2002 - a world-class sporting event held every four years that rivals the Olympics).

In Japan, they sometimes say サッカ (sakka) or フットボール (futto bouru) in place of the pronunciation shown above. 蹴球 is supposed to sound like the English word soccer and football/futbol respectively.

The first Kanji means kick and the second means ball. So technically, this means “kick ball” in Japanese and Korean (this is just an educational note - this will always be understood as the game of soccer/football).

FYI: This game would never be confused with American Football in Japan or Korea. Unlike the game of American basketball and baseball (both quite popular in Japan and Korea), there is only a vague awareness of a rugby-like game that is also called football in the USA.