Football Comics, Pronunciations, and the Yellow Submarine

Italian names can be pretty hard to pronounce sometimes. And chances are, unless you’re Italian or watch your footy on RAI, you may not know how to say everyone’s name on the team. For example, these are pretty common mispronunciations:

Gilardino- “Gil-are-deen-yo”. Yeah, he’s not Brazilian mates. Its “Jeel-are-deen-o”. This one particularly pisses me off cause I have a friend who’s a Gila fan and he gets it wrong. But you probably don’t care so I digress.

Daniele De Rossi- “Daniel Dee Rossi”. This one stuns me. Correct way to say it: “Dan-yelly Day Rossi”

So what’s the solution? Here’s a great site where you can type in a player’s name and hear it as it should be pronounced. It’s not perfect, but it’s light years ahead of the commentators on ESPN. [Side note- can't believe that one of the featured words on the front page as I'm typing this is "vaffanculo".]

Just remember- every time you mispronounce a name, a puppy’s mom ignores him. You don’t want to hurt a puppy do you?

Moving on, I don’t know how many of you guys know about this site, but for those who don’t, here’s a linky. What is it? Oh, it’s a site that has football comics. It’s mostly EPL focused but some of the comics can be pretty damn funny.

In actual footy news, Man U is interested in buying back our favorite Italian American (besides me of course), Giuseppe Rossi. According to Sir Alex Ferguson:

“He’s a good player, in fact, an excellent player. It was difficult to let him go to Villarreal. He wanted first-team football and we couldn’t guarantee him that. When they offered the money they did for him and we got the buy-back clause, it became attractive to us. We’d consider buying him back. We will keep our options open.”

My verdict: Stay the hell away Fergie. Rossi is a starter at Villareal and he’s been great for them. Him and the team can grow well together. What’s he gonna do at Man U? Sit on the bench while Rooney, Tevez, Berba and Ronaldo fight for starting spots? No thanks. Let him start and he’ll keep getting better. A move back to Man U- and a move back to the bench- would only stunt his career.

A side note that’s unrelated to soccer at all- The Killer’s new CD, Day and Age, came out Monday. It’s phenominal. Go and buy it.