LISTEN | Leipzig join foreign clubs tapping into Mzansi lingo and SA sounds

There’s a growing phenomenon of overseas football clubs tapping into Mzansi audiences through using local lingo and trending SA sounds on social media.

The latest club to jump on this bandwagon is German Bundesliga’s RB Leipzig, who have dubbed their upcoming visit to this country the Re Kaofela Tour. Leipzig will be in SA between May 26-30, taking on local perennial league champions Mamelodi Sundowns at Lucas Moripe Stadium on May 29, six days after their last league game of the season against Polokwane City.

Leipzig’s chairman of the board and chief business officer Johann Plenge has explained why they decided to name their tour Re Kaofela.

“On one hand it [naming their SA tour Re Kaofela] gives you credibility, but on the other hand it must also be perceived as a strong sign because this is just not a marketing wording, but this is something we mean by heart,” Plenge said when SowetanLive asked him about the growing trend of European teams using SA lingo and why they named their tour this way.

“Because we want to do this together. This [Leipzig] is not just a football club flying in, doing some training sessions, playing the match and flying out, but this is really something that we can do together as the football community to showcase that we can have a wonderful one-week experience in SA in terms of pushing football culture, hence we’ve chosen Re Kaofela as our motto.”

English Premiership sides Liverpool and West Ham United are the pioneers of this trend. The two never miss an opportunity to jump into SA trends on their socials, with The Reds mostly utilising Facebook to appreciate SA culture, while the Hammers never cease to amaze the gregarious Mzansi TikTok community by using trending local sounds.

Before the recent Soweto derby between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates, the official Bundesliga Facebook page gave the fixture between Soweto’s traditional rivals a shout-out, reinforcing this phenomenon.

Sowetan