Medium: Call up

Premier Vocabulary is a mini-podcast for you to learn football English one word at a time. We have three different levels for you: easy, medium and hard.

This episode is medium so we’re looking at football words and phrases you need to describe what’s happening on the pitch or words and phrases fans and commentators on TV might use. There are lots of phrasal verbs to learn at this level.

Summary

Learn more football vocabulary with Premier Skills English. Each lesson in our Premier Vocabulary section looks at one football word or phrase. This lesson looks at the phrase call up. 

You can find more lessons on the side of this page.

Transcript

Rich: Hello my name’s Rich and welcome to Premier Skills English - Premier Vocabulary.

Jack: Hi there! I’m Jack. We’re here to help you with your football English. Premier Vocabulary is a mini-podcast for you to learn football English one word at a time. 

Rich: We have three different levels for you: easy, medium and hard.

Jack: This episode is medium so we’re looking at football words and phrases you need to describe what’s happening on the pitch or words and phrases fans and commentators on TV might use. There will be lots of phrasal verbs to learn at this level.

Rich: The phrase we are looking at in this episode is call up.

Jack: To call up has a couple of meanings that can be used outside of football.

Rich: The most common meaning is connected to the telephone and means to make a phone call to somebody. Here are a couple of examples:

Jack: I’m going to call up Rowan later and discuss what we are going to talk about in this week’s podcast.

Rich: I called up my dad last night. I hadn’t spoken to him for a while so it was nice to chat.

Jack: The phrasal verb call up also has a meaning connected to the army and being asked by the government to serve your country as a soldier.

Rich: In many countries, men and women from the general public can be called up to work for the army or fight as a soldier.

Jack: When we use call up to talk about football it is usually in connection with playing for the national team.

Rich: A player can be called up for the national team.

Jack: To be called up here means to be asked to play for your country.

Rich: We can say that Raheem Sterling has been called up over 50 times for England but we use the phrase more often when a player is asked to represent his or her country for the first time.

Jack: I think Wolves’ Adama Traore will be called up to the Spanish squad soon.

Rich: We often use the noun a call-up, too. We can say that Harry Kane got his first England call-up in 2016.

Jack: To call up. To give a player an opportunity to play for their country.

Rich: There is the final whistle!

Jack: We’ll be back soon with more Premier Vocabulary from Premier Skills English.

Rich: Bye for now and enjoy your football. 

Discuss

• Which player has been called up most times for your country?
• Which player should get an international call-up soon?

Write your answers in the comments section below.