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Kelechi Iheanacho has dots on his Leicester City shirt to protect a family tradition and share his culture with fans in England.

The dots, which appear under the first and last letters of Iheanacho’s surname, show he is Igbo, a large ethnic group from the south of his native Nigeria.

For an estimated 24 million Igbo speakers, the punctuation on the 22-year-old’s top changes the pronunciation, signalling for the jaw to be more open with the tongue lower in the mouth.

Iheanacho is both proud and excited to share the Igbo language with a worldwide audience.

“In our tradition, the exclamation under the names is very, very important,” the striker told When Saturday Comes.

“For me it is a way to express where I come from and for people to know I have this tradition and tribe back home.

“In the village if they are able to watch the game and see it, they will be proud.”

“It means so much to me. It has been in my mind for a long time, it is my family’s name and for me to carry it on.

“But also I would like to share my culture with the people in this country. I would like everyone to know we have a culture, a way to write, a way to speak and everything. That is the excitement for me.”

Before arriving at Leicester, Iheanacho did not have dots on his shirt, anxious to ask for an alteration at Manchester City, where he had come through the academy.

(Image: Plumb Images/Leicester City FC via Getty Images)

But after completing his £25m move to the King Power Stadium, the punctuation was added.

“I saw some other players have their names with accents so I thought maybe it was a possibility,” Iheanacho said.

“When I was at Manchester City I didn’t have the opportunity. I was a little bit nervous about it coming up from the academy, but coming here I felt I could talk to people about it and see if they could do it.”