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Soccer Legends, Arabic Viewers and the Man in the Middle

Qatar’s beIN Sports hired a host of retired players to bring authority to its World Cup coverage and a group of interpreters to render their words into Arabic. The toughest assignments go to one man.

Lassaad Tounakti brings John Terry’s words to Arabic viewers of beIN Sports and translates Arabic conversations to Terry.Credit...Erin Schaff/The New York Times

DOHA, Qatar — There is perhaps no one in the world who has paid closer attention to the diction and pronunciation of the former England soccer captain John Terry over the past month than Lassaad Tounakti, a 52-year-old Tunisian with a gift for languages, a passion for cologne and an accidental television career.