Chris Kamara had Soccer Saturday catchphrase shouted at him by puppet in Las Vegas
Soccer Saturday legend Chris Kamara has revealed some of the weird and wonderful places he's been recognised as a result of his Sky Sports fame
Chris Kamara has been recognised in some unbelievable places thanks to Soccer Saturday – including by a puppet in Las Vegas.
Kammy became a household name during the 2000s and 2010s alongside Jeff Stelling on the iconic Saturday score show. The pair formed a famous double act during that time, which saw Kamara become synonymous with his "Unbelievable" catchphrase.
The 65-year-old achieved fame beyond football circles for his role on the programme, particularly after one mishap at Portsmouth. Kamara famously missed the sending off of Anthony van den Borre, the clip of which subsequently went viral on social media.
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Writing in his 2023 book, Kammy: My Unbelievable Life, the popular TV personality revealed some of the strange places he'd been recognised as a result of his celebrity status. "The most unexpected place I’ve been recognised is down-town Las Vegas on a family holiday," Kamara wrote.
"We were walking down the street one night when suddenly we all heard, 'Here comes Chris Kamara. Unbelievable, Jeff! Give us a wave, Kammy.' I looked round and saw a ventriloquist entertaining passers-by.
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"The greeting had come from the puppet on his right arm. Anne was convinced I’d set the whole thing up – I couldn’t possibly have been recognised so far from home – but actually the ventriloquist had spent time in the UK, and told us he had played the Soccer Saturday drinking game on a few occasions.
"Not that there’s a definitive Soccer Saturday drinking game – all over the country people are slugging beer, shots or who knows what, every time a pundit shouts ‘Gooaalll’ or a reporter messes up a scorer’s name."
Kamara left Soccer Saturday in 2022 after 24 years on the show. It came as the former Bradford City manager bravely admitted that he had been battling a speech condition known as apraxia.
He later told The Diary of a CEO podcast: "It feels like someone has taken over my voice box. The voice that used to come out would come out at 300 miles an hour, you’ve seen me on the results and Soccer Saturday, motormouth, talking and not even waiting for a breath, just keep going and going.
"Now when I hear myself or see myself on TV it’s someone else. It’s really strange. Some days the message from the brain to the mouth is really slow and makes it difficult, or some days the words come out different than what you’re trying to say and that’s even weirder. So that’s been hard to accept, and [is] still hard to accept."