midfielder

From midfield + -er.

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midfielder (plural midfielders)

1. (sports) A player who operates behind the attackers and in front of the defence.
   • 2011 October 1, Phil McNulty, “Everton 0 - 2 Liverpool”, in BBC Sport‎^[1]:

     The game was engulfed in controversy when Rodwell appeared to win the ball cleanly in a midfield challenge with Suarez. The tackle drew an angry response from Liverpool's players- Lucas in particular as Suarez writhed in agony - but it was an obvious injustice when the England Under-21 midfielder was shown the red card.

   • 2023 January 3, Ben Church, “How Christian Eriksen returned to football after suffering cardiac arrest on pitch”, in CNN‎^[2]:

     Serie A club Inter Milan – whom Eriksen had been contracted to at the time of the incident – let the midfielder move abroad as he was unable to play in Italy unless the ICD device was removed.

   • 2023 March 30, Karen Carney, “Rodri’s Manchester City role shows holding midfielders are key to success”, in The Guardian‎^[3]:

     Defensive midfielders have to see things before they happen in and out of possession.

• midfield
• midfielding

• → Japanese: ミッドフィールダー (middofīrudā)