Dirty TackleFabio Capello calls up wrong player to Russia squad thanks to name confusion
While he was England manager, Fabio Capello was famously criticized by Wayne Rooney for his poor grasp of the English language. The Italian brazenly defended himself, even suggesting that it must have been the Liverpudlian who did not speak his own native language properly.
In his new job as Russia coach, the 67-year-old has to deal with a new language and an entirely new alphabet, so news of a new communication snafu is hardly surprising.
According to The Mirror, the world's best-paid manager called Lokomotiv Moscow reserve centre-back Andrey Semenov into his 23-man squad to face Armenia in two weeks' time. Seeing as the 21-year-old has never even represented the Lokomotiv first team, it soon became apparent that Capello actually meant to call up the 24-year-old defender with the same name who plays for Terek Grozny.
"I was surprised, to say the least," said the incorrectly selected Semenov, who has seven Russia U21 appearances under his belt.
Lokomotiv even published an article on their website declaring the good news, but it was quickly altered when the Russian Football Federation corrected the squad list and apologized for the error.
It's a humorous mistake, but don't be surprized of UFC fighter Andrey Semenov somehow finds himself on the plane to Brazil.
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is a writer for Dirty Tackle on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!
