The PACTE Group raises the idea that translation competence can make up for knowledge gaps through strategic movements in the translation workflows and make translators perform as encyclopedic experts. Yet, in fields where domain expertise is deeply embodied and context-specific, such as sports, this assumption faces significant limitations. The present study investigates the impact of translation expertise and football expertise on the acceptability and readability of the machine translation post-editing (MTPE) products of a football text. The researcher hypothesizes that non-football-fan translators may not compensate for their lack of football expertise despite their translation competence, thus failing to act like real football fans. The methodology involves two mutually exclusive groups: non-football-fan translators and non-translator football fans, who were tasked to post-edit a football text translated by machine from English into Chinese. The results indicate that football fans outperformed translators in both acceptability and readability, suggesting that football expertise plays a crucial role in sports translation quality. As no such contrastive experiment has been conducted in prior research in this field, the present research contributes to the existing literature by addressing this gap and demonstrating the crucial role of specialized language in identity formation through the lens of specialized translation. This study also interrogates the validity of over-reliance on AI tools in translation workflows. Future research should examine the impact of directionality and other variables (e.g., gender) on MTPE performance.