Get to know Suo Chapele, the voice behind SuperSport's pidgin language World Cup coverage

Chief Suo Chapele, the pidgin commentator for SuperSport at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, has garnered significant attention for her unique commentary style, which has drawn comparisons to comedian Real Warri Pikin, causing confusion among some of the comedian's relatives. This resemblance prompted Real Warri Pikin, whose real name is Anita Asuoha, to release a video clarifying that she is not the one providing commentary.

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Born Tracy Chapele-Ugo, Chapele is the 14th child in a family of 18, and her upbringing in Warri during the 1990s and 2000s was characterized by a blend of waterside culture, southern vibes, and religious piety, as she revealed in an interview with Bella Naija. Her late parents, Chief Oletu and Mrs Helen Nneka Chapele, encouraged their children to engage in sports and reading as recreational activities.

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Chapele's educational background includes attending Nana Primary School, DSC Model School 2, Airforce Secondary School, Our Ladies’ High School, and Aladja Grammar School, before proceeding to the University of Benin and John Moore’s University. She developed an interest in football at a young age, and a pivotal moment that sparked her desire to pursue sports presenting was seeing Chisom Mbonu-Ezeoke anchor the 2010 World Cup while pregnant.

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Chapele's entry into pidgin commentary was accidental, as she recalled in an interview with BellaNaija, where she interviewed for an English and pidgin presenting role at Brila FM in Lagos in November 2014 and spontaneously flipped her English script into pidgin on the spot. In a separate interview with City People, she shared a slightly different account of the same origin story, stating that she opted for the pidgin queue at the audition because it was shorter than the English one.

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Within five months of joining Brila FM, Chapele built a solo pidgin sports show on the platform, and she has since become a regular fixture on SuperSport, covering prominent tournaments such as the English Premier League, La Liga, and Serie A, in addition to the Africa Cup of Nations, the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations, and the World Cup. Her experience includes a stint in Qatar in 2022, where she covered the World Cup.

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During Euro 2024, Chapele received an invitation from Germany’s Ministry of Art and Culture to have her pidgin commentary featured in a Berlin museum exhibition alongside notable commentary figures such as Peter Drury and Ernest Okonkwo. In a 2023 interview with Punch, Chapele, who holds the chieftaincy title Chief Chapele Ugo, discussed her family background and an honor bestowed upon her in Delta State.

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The reigning Ovie of Udu Kingdom in Delta State transferred her late father’s title to her, making Chapele the first woman in the kingdom to receive such a title, which traditionally passes from father to son. She also ventured into acting in 2024, taking on a role in the Inkblot-produced film "When Love Strikes" after its producer, Ifunanya Valerie, reached out to her on Instagram.

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Beyond her World Cup commentary, Chapele has framed her work as part of a broader effort to establish pidgin as a serious broadcast language, noting that Nigerian pidgin sports commentary began internationally with Emeka Enyadike at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. With over 25 million native pidgin speakers, Chapele believes that more platforms are becoming open to featuring local-language coverage of sports and other topics.