Fans’ jaws dropped after they heard Amadou Onana’s crystalline English accent.
His ‘unreal’ switch from French to English came during an awkward media round after Belgium lost their opening Euro 2024 fixture against Slovakia 1-0.
The Everton midfielder corrected a reporter after he was confused with Manchester United and Cameroon goalkeeper Andre Onana.
‘Andre is not even my name, mate. Do you know what I mean?’ he said, calmly rebuking a journalist who had tried to get his attention but misnamed him.
‘That accent is so perfect that UEFA should forget the Belgian caps and let him play for England,’ wrote one fan on X.
And that was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to marvelling at his clear English accent, moments after speaking French.
‘That switch is unreal,’ said one.
‘Brother has a better English accent than most English people,’ another commented.
‘The transition to the British accent is so so smooth,’ one wrote.
‘Smh [shaking my head]. You tell him Amadou,’ said another, expressing disdain at the reporter’s mistake.
Over on Reddit the response was similar.
‘I genuinely burst out laughing hearing this. The switch to English is so funny,’ one user commented. ‘On a side note the amount of multi lingual players in that Belgium squad is mad.
Another wrote: ‘Lol that transition from perfect French to [a] classical British accent is not one that you’ll be seeing very often.’
Onana, 22, is one of several young Belgium stars hoping to forge success in a new-look Belgium side under Domenico Tedesco.
Most of the icons of the so-called golden generation are no longer around and this team must make amends for a poor 2022 World Cup campaign, where they crashed out in the group stages.
They have made that task harder after succumbing to Slovakia following Ivan Schranz’s early goal on Monday – with Romelu Lukaku having two goals ruled out by VAR.
In their next fixture they will play Romania and Ukraine, both opponents who they are tipped to beat.
As for Onana, multiple clubs are following him and Everton look set to part ways with him this summer for big money.
Mail Sport understands Arsenal made contact last week over a deal. Nothing is at an advanced stage but the Gunners, plus another Champions League side, have registered interest.
