Hard-to-Pronounce Premier League Player Names 2026/27

How do you pronounce Gyökeres? What about Szoboszlai, Ekitiké or Kelleher?

The 2026/27 Premier League season features players from all over the world, and some of their names can be surprisingly difficult for English speakers to pronounce.

This guide gives you a simple English transliteration for some of the hardest Premier League player names to pronounce in 2026/27.

The transliterations are designed to help a British English speaker say the name correctly without needing to understand IPA or the pronunciation rules of another language.

«Important: these are English approximations. Some sounds in Swedish, Hungarian, Danish, Dutch, French, Portuguese and other languages do not have an exact equivalent in English.»

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1. Viktor Gyökeres — Arsenal

Gyökeres

Pronounced:

YOH-keh-resh

The initial G is not pronounced as a hard English G.

The player's own pronunciation has commonly been rendered as YOH-keh-resh, while Swedish and Hungarian phonetics explain why the exact sound is difficult to reproduce in English.

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2. Dominik Szoboszlai — Liverpool

Szoboszlai

Pronounced:

SOB-oss-lye

This is one of the most famous difficult Premier League names.

The Premier League's own player pronunciation guide gives “Do-min-ik Sob-oss-lye.”

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3. Hugo Ekitiké — Liverpool

Ekitiké

Pronounced:

eh-kee-tee-KAY

The final é produces the prominent final sound.

Club-based pronunciation material for Ekitiké also validates this.

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4. Florian Wirtz — Liverpool

Wirtz

Pronounced:

VIRTZ

The German W is closer to an English V sound.

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5. Giorgi Mamardashvili — Liverpool

Mamardashvili

Pronounced:

JOR-jee mah-mar-dash-VEE-lee

Breaking it into sections (as above) makes this much easier

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6. Benjamin Šeško - Manchester United

Šeško

Pronounced:

SHESH-koh

The Š represents a sh sound.

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7. Noussair Mazraoui - Manchester United

Mazraoui

Pronounced:

maz-rah-WEE

The ending is the part most likely to cause problems to some English speakers.

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8. Rasmus Højlund - Manchester United

Højlund

Pronounced:

HOY-loond

The Danish ø does not have an exact English equivalent, so this is an approximation.

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9. Manuel Ugarte - Manchester United

Ugarte

Pronounced:

oo-GAR-teh

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10. Caoimhín Kelleher - Brentford

Kelleher

Pronounced:

KEE-veen KEL-le-her

This is one of the most intimidating names to read if you don't know Irish pronunciation.

The Premier League also gives the first name as “Kee-veen” and the surname as “Kell-le-her.”

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11. Yehor Yarmoliuk - Brentford

Yarmoliuk

Pronounced approximately:

yar-moh-LYUK

The Ukrainian i/u combination makes the ending difficult to reproduce exactly in English.

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12. Ferdi Kadıoğlu - Brighton

Kadıoğlu

Pronounced approximately:

kah-dee-OH-loo

The Turkish ğ is not a normal hard English “g”, which is why reading

the spelling literally gives the wrong result.

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13. Rayan Cherki - Manchester City

Cherki

Pronounced:

SHER-kee

The French pronunciation is more nuanced than this English approximation, but SHER-kee is an effective transliteration for a UK audience.

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14. Abdukodir Khusanov - Manchester City

Khusanov

Pronounced approximately:

khoo-SAH-nov

The kh represents a guttural sound rather than the normal English K. ---

15. Tarik Muharemović — Leeds United

Muharemović

Pronounced:

moo-ha-REM-oh-vitch

The ć at the end is closer to a soft “ch” sound than an English “k”. The spelling makes this particularly easy to misread.

--- 16. Enzo Le Fée — Sunderland

Le Fée

Pronounced:

luh FAY

The é is the key giveaway. It's not “Lee Fee” — the surname is pronounced with the French “ay” sound.

--- 17. Sindre Walle Egeli - Ipswich

Pronounced: SIN-dreh VAH-leh EH-geh-lee

The Norwegian “g” takes a soft “y”/“gh”-like sound, making the surname less straightforward than it looks