Bruno Fernandes, the captain of Manchester United, has received an apology from former Sky Sports pundit Martin Tyler for consistently mispronouncing his name.
Peter Drury took over Tyler’s position as the primary Sky Sports commentator last summer after a lengthy and prosperous career in the gantry as the voice of the Premier League. The 78-year-old has experience working behind the mic for various networks, including NBC.
Since then, he has talked about how hard it is to pronounce player names correctly. He has also acknowledged that he said Fernandes on purpose because English speakers find the real pronunciation too challenging. Even so, Tyler—who has been with United since January 2020—apologizes to Fernandes.
In an interview with The Joy Of Football, Tyler clarified, saying, “Learning Portuguese is incredibly challenging. Bruno Fer-nanj is Manchester United’s eighth player. I would definitely get laughed out of the commentary box if I stated that. But that’s the reality.
“We are dispatched… The Premier League does a great job of getting the players, who must become tired of doing it every year, to speak their name in front of the camera so that it can be shown globally. Bruno then approaches and addresses us all as “Bruno Fer-nan-des” after saying, “Bruno Fer-nan-j.” Bruno, I’m sorry.