Backheel

noun, verb

noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A kick played by the heel which typically travels in the opposite direction from which the player is facing.

    "[Bendtner was central to it at all, firstly firing home, via a deflection off Gareth McAuley, after being teed up by Sebastien Larsson's neat backheel, and then a minute later crossing for Elmohamady to head in an equaliser."

  2. 2
    A method of tripping or throwing by getting the leg back of the opponent's heel on the outside and pulling forward while pushing his body back.
Verb
  1. 1
    To perform such a kick.

    "Mount’s low cross deflected, Olivier Giroud backheeled for Pulisic and Arsenal’s defenders seemed to react in slow motion."

  2. 2
    To perform such a trip or throw.

Example

More examples

"He redirected the ball with a backheel."

Etymology

From back + heel.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.