Julio Salinas and the origin of 'switching the play' in football

The football that talks: from Julio Salinas to the RAE
Anyone who watches football again after years away will notice that commentators no longer speak like they used to. Expressions such as "se duele", "con jerarquía" or "cambio de orientación" (switching the play) have settled in without anyone quite knowing when or why. The explanation, as almost always, has a name and a date.

The Salinas moment: 2004
During Euro 2004, former striker Julio Salinas was working as a guest commentator. In one match, the play-by-play announcer said "cambio de juego" and Salinas, who was then taking his national coaching licence, corrected him: "you don't say cambio de juego, you say cambio de orientación". That flash of technical wisdom stuck: from then on, the phrase spread until it became a cliché. The anecdote, recently unearthed, traces the origin of this jargon to the obsession with technical jargon that defined the generation of players turned analysts.

From Peruvian Spanish to the dictionary
Another word that has burst into broadcasts is "campeonar" (to dominate a match). Years ago it was unknown in Spain; today it is heard daily. The Real Academia Española (Spain's language academy) has already included it, acknowledging its origin in Peruvian Spanish. The adoption has been quick and quiet, as if football's language had peine a window to Latin American Spanish without asking anyone's permission.

Is it just a fad, or a symptom of how football globalises language too? Meanwhile, purists grit their teeth every time they hear "encimar" or "isolar". The question remains open.