Nutmeg (association football)
A nutmeg (or tunnel, nut, megs, megnuts, panna, brooksy, codling) is a skill used mainly in association football, but also in field hockey, ice hockey, and basketball. The aim is to kick, roll, dribble, throw, or push the ball (or puck) between an opponent's legs (feet). Exponents in football. Kicking the ball through an opponent's legs in order to get the ball past them and back to the original player is a dribbling skill that is commonly used among football players. Owing to its effectiveness and being visually impressive, it is very popular among players  and can be frequently seen being attempted multiple times throughout a game, whether by a single player or many different players. Some of the most notable practitioners include Riquelme, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Robinho, Neymar, Luis Suárez, Lionel Messi, Eden Hazard and Tobin Heath. Suárez in particular is known for having a penchant for executing it constantly, which led to the banner and saying "Suárez can nutmeg a Mermaid" during his time at Liverpool. Street football game. There is also a street football game, originating in the Netherlands, which is called "panna" (Sranan Tongo for "gate"). This game depends on usage of  this technique. Etymology. An early use of the term is in the novel "A bad lot" by Brian Glanville (1977). According to Alex Leith's book "Over the Moon, Brian - The Language of Football", "nuts refers to the testicles of the player through whose legs the ball has been passed and nutmeg is just a development from this". The use of the word nutmeg to mean leg, in Cockney rhyming slang, has also been put forward as an explanation. Another theory was postulated by Peter Seddon in his book, "Football Talk - The Language And Folklore Of The World's Greatest  Game". The word, he suggests, arose because of a sharp practice used in nutmeg exports between North America and England. "Nutmegs were such a valuable commodity that unscrupulous exporters were to pull a fast one by mixing a helping of wooden replicas into the sacks being shipped to England," writes Seddon. "Being nutmegged soon came to imply stupidity on the part of the duped victim and cleverness on the part of the trickster." While such a ploy would surely not be able to be employed more than once, Seddon alleges it soon caught on in football, implying that the player  whose legs the ball had been played through had been tricked, or, nutmegged. In other sports. In the National Basketball Association, Manu Ginóbili and Jamaal Tinsley employ the pass between the legs variant. Some commentators also use the term "five-hole" when this happens; the term arose in ice hockey for when the puck passes between the goalie's legs into the goal. In cricket, England's Nat Sciver has had the "Natmeg" shot named after her, when she has hit a cricket ball through her legs during a game. In other languages. Nutmeg is the British English name for  this technique.