In order to enhance fan enjoyment of the upcoming European Championship – and possibly also to assist the pundits – UEFA.com have put together a guide to pronouncing the names of players at the finals.
We think it’s a great idea to help prevent us mangling the names of lesser-known European footballers from now ‘til the final on July 10.
Understandably, the UEFA team haven’t gone through every player on every team – just highlighted the ones they expect to cause difficulty.
Albania and Croatia seem most likely to cause trouble – with 17 of the players in each squad requiring explanation.
Albanians to watch include:
Ergys Kaçe – Erg-oos Kat-che
Burim Kukeli – Boo-rim Ku-ke-lih
Ermir Lenjani – Ermir Len-ya-nih
Ledjan Memushaj – Led-yan Me-moo-shay
And maybe you should practise these Croatian monikers.
Šime Vrsjalko – Shi-may Ver-sal-ee-ko
Lovre Kalinić – Low-rey Ka-lin-itch
Marko Pjaca – Pea-at-sa
The Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania squads are also packed with potential tongue-twisters.
We are definitely going to struggle with Balász Dzsudzsák (Bol-azh Joo-jaack) and Gergő Lovrencsics (Ger-gur Lov-ren-chitch).
And what of the Republic of Ireland squad?
The folks at UEFA see two potentially tricky names for non-Irish fans.
Richard Keogh – Kee-oh
Ciaran Clark – Key-ran
They warn: “Notice that the ‘gh’ in ‘Keogh’ is not the same as the ‘gh’ in ‘cough’. The Irish name ‘Ciaran’ is equivalent to the more common ‘Kieran’ in this case.”
Surprisingly, Wales have only one name on the list: Owain Fôn Williams should be pronounced O-wayne Von Will-ee-ams.
And Northern Ireland have three.
Gareth McAuley – Mick-kaw-lee
Luke McCullough – Mick-kulla
Conor McLaughlin – Mick-lock-lin
Check out the full list here – and get practising.
