Why do soccer fans chant Olé?
When one team passes the ball around so easily the crowd yells 'Olé!' on every touch — like a bullfight, cheering each pass while the other team chases shadows.
Explain further
The chant comes straight from bullfighting in Spain, where crowds shout "Olé!" each time the matador makes a clean, elegant pass with the cape and the bull charges past with nothing to show for it. Soccer fans borrowed the idea. The mood is part celebration of their own team's skill and part gentle mockery of the side left chasing, and the volume builds the longer the opponents fail to even touch the ball.
You will usually hear it late in a game that is already decided, when the winning side stops attacking and simply keeps possession to run out the clock. Each safe, easy pass earns its own "Olé!", turning routine keep-away into a running joke at the loser's expense.
What trips up Americans is that this is not a rehearsed cheer you practice in the stands. It erupts on its own, and it carries a sting. Being "olé'd" is considered humiliating, because it means your opponents are no longer trying to score, just toying with you. So while it sounds festive, for the team on the receiving end it is one of the more pointed insults a crowd can deliver without saying a word.