I've come up with a list (in 4-4-2 formation) of my starting XI "Best Name Team." The names that are really different, interesting or cool sounding to an American will probably be different than a similar list by someone from Togo or Germany or Japan. For all I know, Clint Dempsey, sounds like the most bizarre name on earth in Tunisia. My list: Goalkeeper: Shaka Hislop (Trinidad & Tobago) Defenders: Lebo Lebo (Angola) Yahya Golmohammadi (Iran) Oguchi Onyewu (United States) Massamasso Ichangai (Togo) Midfielders: Kaka (Brazil) Gilles Yapi Yapo (Ivory Coast) Vikash Dhorasoo (France) Bastian Schweinsteiger (Germany) Strikers: Razak Pimpong (Ghana) Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink (The Netherlands)
here is my team: GK: Ouro-Nimini Tchagnirou(Togo) D: Sohrab Bakhtiarizadeh(Iran) D: Keisuke Tsuboi(Japan) D: Chong Gug Song(S. Korea) D: Khalid Boulahrouz(Holland) M: Gilles Yapi Yapo(Ivory Coast) M: Riadh Bouazizi(Tunisia) M: Hedwiges Maduro(Holland) M: Christian Wilhelmsson(Sweden) also makes the All-Hair team F: Love(Angola) F: Atsushi Yanagisawa(Japan)
I'll give it a try too. I'll focus on finding players with (sur)names that have a meaning in Swedish. GK: Maarten Stekelenburg (The Netherlands) - Stek = roast, or to fry, elen= the electricity, burg is the same as Swedish borg=castle,fort . So fry-the-elcetricity-burg Defenders: Robert Huth (Germany) - without the H (which would be silent i Swedish anyway) a, not very common, word used to chase of dogs or demeaning accusation of humans Phillip Lahm (Germany) - again without the H, Lam = paralyzed Christoph Spycher (Switzerland) - last name broken into Spy=vomit and Cher, pronouneced as Swedish word kärr=march. So that makes Vomit March Vjatjeslav Sviderskij (Ukraine)- Svider = sting (i.e. a wound that stings) Midfielders: Jan Polak (Czech Republic) - Polack= Pole, Polish. So the Czech have a Pole on their midfield Kaká (Brazil) - Cookie David Degen (Switzerland) - the dough. Silvo Spann (T&T) - Spann has variety of meanings bucket, purred, spun, span/arch Strikers: Mark Viduka (Australia)- Vi=we, duka=set the table. Mark, "We-set-the-table"! (correct grammar would be Vi dukar) Fred (Brazil) - peace Bench: Bogdan Sjust (Ukraine) - don't know the real pronunciation, but for a Swede it looks like a variant of the word Schyst/Sjyst/just meaning fair or cool Lamá (Angola) - Llama or paralyzed when in reference to two or more people. Henk Timmer (The Netherlands) - timmer =timber Massimo Oddo (Italy) - Well odd... and a palindrome Artur Boka (Ivory coast) - to book or reserve Phillip Cocu (The Netherlands) - Kocko-slang for crazy/stupid Dejan Stankovic (Serbia&Montenegro) - stank=stink David Villa (Spain) - detached house Robert Malm (Togo) - ore
I know, they're more than 11, but anyway... Buffon (clown) Porras (in Chile, "porras" are the school little girls who don't know anything; in Mexico are the "Alabío,Alabáo,Alabim-bom-báo, México,México,ra-ra-rráaa!!) Basta (enough!) Bocanegra (black mouth) Pope (he's the "black" pope) Boka (mouth) Terry (kind of dog) Grosso ("cool" in Chile in the 80's) Lebo Lebo (funny) Loco (mad, crazy) Guagua (little baby) Zé Kalanga (funny) Cocu (funny) Boa Morte (Good death) Lennon (cool, I love The Beatles) Ono (well, same reason of Lennon) Yapi Yapo (funny) Reyna and Reina (Queen) Kaká (excrement=caca) Perrotta (like a dog "perro"=dog) Pimpong (ping-pong you know) Toni (clown) Koné (Coné and Condorito are famous cartoon in Chile, is a little condor)
I thought a guagua was a cart, wagon, bus, or minivan. I guess it's my Puerto Rican dialect -- we call an orange a "china," or a Mandarin. Funny that there is a Lennon and an Ono in the World Cup. What about Harrison, McCartney, and Starkey? Or a Best or Sutcliffe?
In other latinoamerican countries I know "guagua" is a bus (ex: CentroAmérica and Venezuela I think). Just in Chile "guagua" means little baby, because for example in Argentina is "bebé" or "nene". There was a McCartney in Northern Ireland, and also a Lennon in the same NT.