footballist

plural footballists

1. datedA football player.

   9 Lisbon street is headquarters for the footballists for both field and street attire.

   1905, Board of Trade Journal, volume 18, page 436

   2 more examples

   But that jolly crowd, composed mostly of athletes and footballists, had little mind for the serious affairs of life, and nothing was done.

   1903, The Kappa Alpha Journal, volume 21, page 588

   Anyhow, hunters are a brave lot of men to face such large chances of death, as brave as beefy footballists.

   1913, American Medicine, volume 19, page 773