Little Wife, Magic Bird and Busty among fans’ cartoonish cast
Mesut Ozil is “Little Wife”, Paul Pogba is “Busty” and Jose Mourinho is called “Magic Bird” — Chinese fans and media have conjured up creative and bizarre nicknames for many of the world’s biggest soccer stars.
There is also “Very Homesick Boy” (Carlos Tevez), “Little Puppy” (Kylian Mbappe) and “Violent Bird” (Paulinho).
Chinese is expressed using idiomatic characters rather than an alphabet, making it difficult to use the language to transliterate some foreign names.
That means that while someone like England striker Harry Kane or Lionel Messi keep their names in China because they are fairly simple to pronounce, many others have not been so lucky.
It is often an indication of how popular a player is in China.
Argentine forward Tevez had a disastrous 12-month spell in the Chinese Super League (CSL) with Shanghai Shenhua, with his inability to settle in his new surrounds earning him the nickname “Very Homesick Boy”.
Likewise, Arsenal midfielder Ozil is mockingly known as “Little Wife” because of the perception that the German is timid.
Wayne Rooney similarly may not wish to read any further because the former England forward is dubbed “Xiaopang” — “Little Fatty”, although that is more affectionate than offensive.
Chinese fans, though, can also be kind.
Paul Pogba is “Busty” because his surname sounds like the word for that in Chinese, while Mourinho — the French midfielder’s manager at Manchester United — is similar to the Chinese phrase for “Magic Bird”.
China’s popular Italian coach Marcello Lippi is “Silver Fox” on account of his grey hair and Brazilian Guangzhou Evergrande midfielder Paulinho was bestowed the moniker “Violent Bird” in an approving nod to his all-action style.
Then there is Alexandre Pato, the Brazilian forward who has rebuilt his career at Tianjin Quanjian.
The 28-year-old often posts on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like service, and is deemed to be integrating into life in the country better than many of the other foreign players.
That has earned the former AC Milan star the respectful title “Pa Jianguo” — a patriotic phrase that partly translates as “build the country”.
Mbappe, the 19-year-old starlet who took the World Cup by storm, is lovingly called “Little Puppy” because of his tender years.
It is not just soccer players who get the name treatment.
Tennis great Roger Federer is fondly called “Cow” in China, partly because of his laidback demeanor, while Jennifer Lopez’s well-known posterior has earned her the designation “Luo Ba” — “Lord of Butt”.