6 names of athletes that are often mispronounced

Many athletes have really unique and unusual surnames. When they gain worldwide popularity, brands immediately start to cooperate with them, they are written about and talked about in the mass media, and for their fans they create personalized T-shirts.

But often there are problems with the spelling of their full name. We tell you about athletes who are used to misspelling their first or last name.

sports journalist, correspondent

No mishaps have happened in my memory, but from my youth I remember how commentator Viktor Gusev liked to call Cesc Fabregas Sex, by mistake. It amused me every time. Or the Dutchman Dirk Kuyt. Our commentators always suffered with him: Kuyt, Kuyt, Kuiaut. Everyone had their own options.

Memphis Depay

The name of the Dutch soccer player is often mispronounced. In 2016, he played in a friendly match for the Dutch national team. Those in charge of the game drew up an official protocol with the names of all participants in the match. Depay’s name was misspelled – Mempis.

Sports journalists are also confused about the spelling. Sky Sports often refers to the player as Mumphis.

Wayne Gretzky

Once the management of “Tottenham” invited Wayne Gretzky to an English League Cup match with Arsenal. Before the game, the team gave the NHL legend an away jersey with his last name, in the spelling of which there was a mistake.

Instead of “Gretzky,” the jersey showed “Gretsky.” Wayne joked at the time, saying that such mishaps happen to him on a regular basis.

Papiss Cisse

The Fenerbahce striker is from Senegal, so not only foreign fans but also famous sports brands are confused by the spelling of his surname.

For example, in 2013, the Nike brand made Hypervenom personalized boots for the forward. On the heel, the designers misspelled the last name – Sisse. In the original version, it begins with the letter “C”.

Troy Tulowitzki

The surname of the American baseball player is difficult to perceive by ear, and due to the combination of the letters “ts” and “k”, which rarely stand next to each other in other languages, many people make a mistake in the spelling. In 2014, the management of the Colorado Rockies baseball team decided to make and distribute T-shirts with the name of the team’s main star Troy Tulowitzki.

The edition of the name t-shirts was 15,000 copies, and the shortstop’s last name was misspelled on all of them – Tulowizki instead of Tulowitzki.

Novak Djokovic

Unpleasant situations also arise with those names in which it seemed impossible to make a mistake. At one of the Australian Open tennis championships, the tournament organizers misspelled the name of tennis player Novak Djokovic on one of the stands – Novack instead of Novak.

Antti Niemi

In November 2015, the Finnish goalie, who currently plays for KHL club Jokerit, came out for warm-ups wearing a jersey with Niemi’s name on the back. This was instantly noticed by fans and journalists.

By the time the game started, the athlete was pointed out the mistake on his uniform, so after the warm-up he came out wearing the stuff with the correct last name.