euro 2012: best names

I end up doing this for most international tournaments. It’s me being childish and provincial, since much of what I find interesting about player names is related to how they sound to an American’s ears. I fully understand that “Steven” might sound just as odd to speakers of other languages. I am also perhaps too enamored of names that suggest nationalities other than the ones they use for national team purposes. Having apologized in advance, here are the Names of Euro 2012:

• Croatia: Darijo Srna, Šime Vrsaljko, Eduardo
• England: Joe, Glen, Steven, John, Andy, Wayne, Robert, James, Scott, Stewart, Danny, Jack, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
• Germany: Bastian Schweinsteiger, Mario Gómez
• Greece: Kyriakos Papadopoulos, Avraam Papadopoulos, Sokratis Papastathopoulos
• Ireland: Robbie Keane, Damien Duff
• Netherlands: Khalid “The Cannibal” Boulahrouz
• Portugal: Custódio
• Russia: Yuri Zhirkov (some announcers have pronounced his last name in an unfortunate fashion)
• Sweden: Isaksson, M. Olsson, Larsson, Svensson, J. Olsson, Antonsson, Wilhelmsson, Hansson, Markus Rosenberg

Comments

[The Shave]

What about Behrang Safari for Sweden!

[Steven Rubio]

Good one! I missed it because I was making my SSON Rosenberg list.