article_snippet: nutmeg’ is the technique of rolling the ball between an opponent’s legs, and gains extra acclaim when the attacking player retains possession after performing the trick.
article_snippet: The origins of the word have long been debated, with the most popular theory being that nutmegs are slang for a rather private area of the male anatomy
article_snippet: Nutmegging in football comes from the centuries-old slang
article_snippet: ‘nutmegs’, meaning ‘testicles’.
article_snippet: However, the use of the word nutmeg to mean leg in Cockney rhyming slang has also been put forward as an explanation, while another claim is that it comes from the practice used in nutmeg exports between America and England in the 18th century, when nutmegs were such a valuable commodity that unscrupulous exporters used to mix wooden replicas into the sacks being shipped across the Atlantic.
article_snippet: Being nutmegged soon came to imply stupidity on the part of the duped victim and cleverness on the part of the trickster.
article_snippet: It later caught on in football, implying that the player whose legs the ball had been played through had been tricked, or, nutmegged.