There is nothing that irks most foreign players in the Bundesliga other than the wrong pronunciation of their names. Some people regard foreign names as jaw breaking.
Energie Cottbus, a second division team, developed a novel idea to help members of the Media and the public, pronounce the names of their players correctly. On Monday, the club sent pronunciation rules to the names of their professional players for the Press.
The Chinese player, Jiayi Shao is pronouced as (Dscha-ie Scha-o), Leonard Kweuke from Cameroun (Leonard Quej-ke) and Savo Pavicevic from Montenegro (Sawo Pa-wie-tsche-witsch)
The Press spokesman of Energie Cottbus, Ronny Gersch, is quoted in a sid report as saying, “We have always done it before the start of the season. It is particularly important, before the first live broadcast on TV.”
Energie Cottbus has a tradition of employing foreign players in the Bundesliga. In 2007/2008 season, the club had the highest percentage(61%) of foreign players in the league.
When it comes to pronouncing names that might be jaw breaking, Brazilian players are very inventful with catchy nicknames. Who remembers that Real Madrid’s Kaka , real name is Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite or the new signing for Hamburg, Ze Roberto is actually called José Roberto da Silva Júnior ?
I welcome Energie Cottbus proactive steps to prevent conflict in name pronunciation.
