Ahead of the European Championships, the kind folk at the UEFA communications department have realised that we are not all gifted with the linguistic dexterity of George Hamilton, a man put on this Earth to tell the world how to correctly pronounce Jakub Blaszczykowski. UEFA did not furnish any audio clips, instead spelling out each name phonetically. They did not decide to give a guide for every player,restricting themselves to the ones they perceived as tricky.
This means only two Irish players got the nod, and sadly UEFA got them both wrong. Firstly, they took the British rendering of Richard Keogh (Kee-oh over the proper Kh-yo) and the attempt at Ciaran Clark was bewilderingly wide of the mark:
Elsewhere, they nailed the Northern Ireland players...
...while the preamble to the English squad was fantastic:
To be fair, some of the other attempts were brilliant. George Hamilton would highly approve of Swedish midfielder Kim Shell-strome, and would likely coo over Portuguese 'keeper Khoo-wee Pah-tree-see-oh.
It is a must-read for anyone who got Albania in the office sweepstakes.
Read the full UEFA pronunciation guide here.
[UEFA.com]
See Also: Roy Keane's Typically Superb Response To Being Asked About Player Boredom
See Also: Holy Shit, Pep Guardiola Is Really Beginning To Mean Business In The Transfer Market
