I’m a Premier League star and gave myself a stupid nickname after watching Cool Runnings… it’s still on back of my shirt

A PREMIER LEAGUE ace has been performing with a nickname he received from the popular movie Cool Runnings throughout his 17-year career.

The Disney film starring John Candy is loosely based on Jamaica’s national bobsleigh team which competed in the 1988 Winter Olympics.

One of the cast’s most beloved characters was called Sanka Coffie and was played by Doug E. Doug.

And a well-known defender, who started his career in Denmark, ended up being named after him.

However, the 33-year-old’s case comes with a twist as his own moniker is spelled differently.

And it all kicked off during the Dane’s youth years at B.93 in 2000.

The man in question? Well, it’s none other than Brentford ace Mathias ‘Zanka’ Jorgensen.

Jorgensen earned the nickname when he was 10 years old during an awkward car ride that saw his then coach Johan Lange cramming his vehicle in such a way it looked like a bobsleigh.

The Denmark international managed to get a set in the front to avoid the unpleasantness at the back.

Lange happened to be a huge fan of Cool Runnings and so the rest is history…

Zanka previously told BBC Radio Leeds: “My former youth coach had seen the movie ‘Cool Runnings’ and we were coming back from training about 20 minutes from where I was living in Copenhagen and we had to cram a lot of people in the car.

“I was sat in front of the passenger seat in what seemed like a bobsleigh and he looked down and said ‘Sanka’ and it just caught on.

“By the end of high school everyone was calling me ‘Zanka’ and when I signed my first contract at Copenhagen [in 2007] they asked me what I wanted on my shirt.

“My mum was saying I could take my dad’s name ‘Jattah-Njie’ or her name Jorgensen and then the sports director said how about Zanka?

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“It’s more recognisable than Jorgensen as a lot of people are named Jorgensen in Scandinavia.”

Jorgensen continues to wear that nickname on the back of his shirt at Brentford and did the same during his two-year stint at Huddersfield until his departure for Fenerbahce in 2019.

However, the centre-back is not sure why his moniker is misspelled to this day.

Zanka added: “I think it has a Z because I was told it looks cooler. As a 10-year-old, I wanted to be cool and the nickname stuck.”

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Kostas Lianos

April 5, 2024 7:22 pm