The Bundesliga has a new goalscorer. But he doesn’t want his real last name on his back.
On Thursday, 1. FC Union Berlin announced its royal transfer. Jordan Siebatcheu switched from Bern to the “Iron” for six million euros. He is set to succeed Taiwo Awoniyi (15 goals) who has signed for Nottingham Forest.
Attentive Union fans looked for the American on social media and saw that Siebatcheu’s name on Twitter was “Call me PEFOK” (“Call me Pefok”). “Pefok” is also on the jersey of the forward in the US national team, he also had it on the back for Young Boys Bern.
The reason: Pefok is his mother’s maiden name, who comes from Cameroon. He also wants to represent the culture of their homeland. Union has not yet announced under which name the 26-year-old will appear in Berlin.
Examples Nianzou and Bryan
Jordan Siebatcheu or Jordan Pefok wouldn’t be the only player to change his name on the shirt. Tanguy Nianzou from FC Bayern still played under the name Tanguy Kouassi at Paris Saint-Germain.
Kevin-Prince Boateng actually only wants to be called Prince Boateng. I don’t like my first name. He told the radio station “Hit Radio FFH” in 2017: “It was an error in the birth certificate – nobody knows that yet. My name should actually be Kelvin. That would of course have been a top name: Kelvin-Prince.”
36-year-old Bryan Ruiz (Costa Rica) also uses his first name in international matches or games at club level. The surname Ruiz doesn’t mean much to him. “My father left the family when I was a year old,” he said. “I didn’t change the family name and kept it. It’s not that I don’t like using it, but I like Bryan more and I don’t think Ruiz means much to me.”