Time to stop butchering footballers names
A year ago I posted an article I wrote about Mispronouncing names and the feeling of belonging. How by simply having your name mispronounced could be sending a message you are not welcome in a certain environment.
As I went on to write about my own struggle of how moving around the world hasn’t been easy on my name, I found many similar stories to mine of how people felt left out by constantly having their names butchered.
Your name is the greatest connection you have with your identity, culture and background. Companies like Linkedin and Slack have shown that a diverse workforce is a welcome reality and that the unfamiliarity with someone’s name should not justify mispronouncing it — they have integrated audio name pronunciations to user profiles on their platforms.
As the FIFA World Cup, the most watched sports event in the globe, kicked off this week, it’s clear that mispronouncing names is far from being a problem exclusive to the business environment. Foreigner footballers have been playing a huge role (quite literally) in international teams — leagues in England, Germany and France have more than half of their players coming from a foreign country. Brazil has the highest number of footballers playing in professional leagues worldwide, and football fans are well familiar with names like Coutinho and Gabriel Jesus. But can people pronounce their names correctly?
Commentators and football fans across the world would often struggle to pronounce footballers’ names in their native languages, with some football clubs and associations being aware of the issue. Manchester United had Fred himself showing how to correctly pronounce his name and UEFA published a phonetic guide for the native English speakers to learn the players’ names pronunciation.
SAY MY NAME: Footballers ⚽️
However, as 32 countries come together in the World Cup, correctly pronouncing the names of the football players becomes more complex, but it should not be daunting. That’s why we have created Say My Name — Footballers edition. Say My Name allows fans and commentators to listen to the native pronunciation of the players’ names and users can practise their pronunciation, whilst receiving an indication of how good (or poor) their result is. As practice makes perfect, what better way to master your idols’ names than…well, practising?
We hope Say My Name Footballers can be a tool for football fans, spectators and commentators to acknowledge diversity in football, promote the players’ identity and contribute to bringing awareness to the vast range of nationalities — and languages — competing in the World Cup.
Follow on twitter: https://twitter.com/smnfootballers
