Former Arsenal star Martin Keown has become a recognisable figure around the club ever since his long-lasting playing career.
The defender came through the Hale End academy ranks, making 22 league appearances in the early-to-mid 1980s.
He then went on to leave the club, with Martin Keown looking to forge a career with Aston Villa and Everton before he returned to Arsenal.
From 1993 until 2004, the centre-back was an absolute stalwart for the club as he cemented himself among the legends of the early Premier League years.
Keown helped revolutionise Arsenal under Arsene Wenger, going on to win several league titles as well as some domestic cups along the way.
While now he can be seen doing punditry and discussing everything to do with the Gunners, there is one surprising thing people have been getting wrong about him for over 40 years.
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Martin Keown reveals true name pronunciation
While Keown has cemented himself as one of the greats at Arsenal, one thing that often gets overlooked is how to say his name.
Most supporters, and even those outside of the club, have pronounced it “Key-own”, however, the defender cleared up the misunderstanding.
Following the release of his new book, the former defender’s audio edition of it appeared to have a different pronunciation of his name.
Discussing that with Hayters TV, he said: “Key-owen is the pronunciation.
“My father worked hard [to tell people] and I kind of gave up on it because it was so difficult to get people to say the word. The Irish just say it. It just rolls off the tongue as it’s part of their dialect.”
It’s incredible that, after all this time playing at the top level and even featuring on TV on a regular basis, his name is mispronounced.
However, it’s clearly something that the former defender doesn’t get too hung up on, even with his father’s wishes of getting the true pronunciation out there.
Martin Keown’s Irish background
While Martin Keown went on to feature for England in his international career – featuring from 1992 until 2002 – he does have some Irish heritage.
The ex-defender’s father was from the Republic of Ireland, while his mother was from Northern Ireland, which made him eligible to play for both nations.
However, he was born in Oxford and decided to play for England, though it could’ve been very different if he had chosen to play for either of his parents’ home nations.
The pronunciation of Keown makes a lot more sense when linked to his Irish heritage, though it was never picked up as such when he was playing or even when he moved into punditry.
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