What is the dreaded '007' tag that footballers like Florian Wirtz and Benjamin Sesko will be desperate to avoid?
In case you're wondering why some football fans are calling players '007', here's why...Football is full of colourful language, with supporters and the media alike coming up with creative terminology and tags for various aspects of the sport.Whether it is a nickname for a club or player, or a phrase used to describe a specific act or phenomenon, you can be sure that the football-loving universe has put plenty of thought into it. Occasionally, however, throwaway comments or silly digs can work their way into the lexicon, particularly, in modern times, if they happen to go viral on social media platforms.One example of social media impishness among fans making its way into the wider consciousness of the football-sphere is that of the '007' tag, which has negative meaning for the player who gets branded. So what is it all about and who has suffered the imprint of the stain? GOAL takes a look at the meaning and origin of the tag.In popular culture, 007 is the codename of the fictional spy character James Bond, who has been immortalised in film by actors such as Sean Connery, Roger Moore and Daniel Craig. However, while Bond is admired for his roguish demeanour and effective espionage, the codename has a very different connotations in football.Indeed, '007' in football is a term of mockery which basically means, zero goals and zero assists in seven appearances. It generally refers to a dearth of goal contributions from a player in their first seven appearances for a club.Of course, as is often the way with such arbitrary tags, fans can move the goalposts in order to wind up their counterparts, for example, by refusing to recognise goals or assists in non-competitive games or - whisper it - even competitions such as the Community Shield. Thanks, in some part, to a graphic shown on Sky Sport Germany, Jadon Sancho became the first player to be dubbed '007'. Following the England international's £73 million ($101m) transfer from Borussia Dortmund to Manchester United in 2021, he failed to hit the ground running and racked up a number of appearances without scoring or assisting a single goal.Chatter among fans on the virtual realm of social media soon melted into the real world and thus the graphic of Sancho as Bond was born. The derisive image showed Sancho dressed in a tuxedo along with the caption, 'They call me 007'. Sancho eventually scored for the Red Devils on his 15th appearance and has scored a total of 12 goals in 83 appearances overall for the club, enjoying fruitful loan spells at Chelsea and back at Dortmund in the meantime.In the 2025-26 Premier League season, the noise escalated among the denizens of the online world, with fans relishing the prospect of an emergent flop at one of their rival clubs. Among Premier League aficionados, the focus has intensified in particular over Florian Wirtz, Liverpool's mega-money acquisition from Bayer Leverkusen, and Benjamin Sesko, Manchester United's expensive new Slovenian striker.Wirtz technically provided an assist in his first game - the Community Shield defeat to Crystal Palace where he made a strong first impression - but failed to make an impact in the subsequent five league games or in the Champions League.It is ultimately a meaningless tag, since most players take time to embed themselves into a new club, with even the best talents needing to adapt to new surroundings. In fact, it took Thierry Henry nine games to score his first goal for Arsenal and he went on to score a total of 26 goals in his maiden season in North London.
In case you're wondering why some football fans are calling players '007', here's why...Football is full of colourful language, with supporters and the media alike coming up with creative terminology and tags for various aspects of the sport.Whether it is a nickname for a club or player, or a phrase used to describe a specific act or phenomenon, you can be sure that the football-loving universe has put plenty of thought into it. Occasionally, however, throwaway comments or silly digs can work their way into the lexicon, particularly, in modern times, if they happen to go viral on social media platforms.One example of social media impishness among fans making its way into the wider consciousness of the football-sphere is that of the '007' tag, which has negative meaning for the player who gets branded. So what is it all about and who has suffered the imprint of the stain? GOAL takes a look at the meaning and origin of the tag.In popular culture, 007 is the codename of the fictional spy character James Bond, who has been immortalised in film by actors such as Sean Connery, Roger Moore and Daniel Craig. However, while Bond is admired for his roguish demeanour and effective espionage, the codename has a very different connotations in football.Indeed, '007' in football is a term of mockery which basically means, zero goals and zero assists in seven appearances. It generally refers to a dearth of goal contributions from a player in their first seven appearances for a club.Of course, as is often the way with such arbitrary tags, fans can move the goalposts in order to wind up their counterparts, for example, by refusing to recognise goals or assists in non-competitive games or - whisper it - even competitions such as the Community Shield. Thanks, in some part, to a graphic shown on Sky Sport Germany, Jadon Sancho became the first player to be dubbed '007'. Following the England international's £73 million ($101m) transfer from Borussia Dortmund to Manchester United in 2021, he failed to hit the ground running and racked up a number of appearances without scoring or assisting a single goal.Chatter among fans on the virtual realm of social media soon melted into the real world and thus the graphic of Sancho as Bond was born. The derisive image showed Sancho dressed in a tuxedo along with the caption, 'They call me 007'. Sancho eventually scored for the Red Devils on his 15th appearance and has scored a total of 12 goals in 83 appearances overall for the club, enjoying fruitful loan spells at Chelsea and back at Dortmund in the meantime.In the 2025-26 Premier League season, the noise escalated among the denizens of the online world, with fans relishing the prospect of an emergent flop at one of their rival clubs. Among Premier League aficionados, the focus has intensified in particular over Florian Wirtz, Liverpool's mega-money acquisition from Bayer Leverkusen, and Benjamin Sesko, Manchester United's expensive new Slovenian striker.Wirtz technically provided an assist in his first game - the Community Shield defeat to Crystal Palace where he made a strong first impression - but failed to make an impact in the subsequent five league games or in the Champions League.It is ultimately a meaningless tag, since most players take time to embed themselves into a new club, with even the best talents needing to adapt to new surroundings. In fact, it took Thierry Henry nine games to score his first goal for Arsenal and he went on to score a total of 26 goals in his maiden season in North London.
