diff --git a/.changeset/normalize_special_characters.md b/.changeset/normalize_special_characters.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..3ed01da0c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/normalize_special_characters.md
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+---
+default: patch
+---
+
+# Normalize Special Characters
+
+#1285 by @MatteoGisondi
+
+Fixes #1284
diff --git a/openapi_python_client/utils.py b/openapi_python_client/utils.py
index 15e8c9eec..32b1ca375 100644
--- a/openapi_python_client/utils.py
+++ b/openapi_python_client/utils.py
@@ -6,6 +6,8 @@
 from keyword import iskeyword
 from typing import Any
 
+from unidecode import unidecode
+
 from .config import Config
 
 DELIMITERS = r"\. _-"
@@ -44,8 +46,8 @@ def __deepcopy__(self, _: Any) -> ClassName:
 
 
 def sanitize(value: str) -> str:
-    """Removes every character that isn't 0-9, A-Z, a-z, or a known delimiter"""
-    return re.sub(rf"[^\w{DELIMITERS}]+", "", value)
+    """Removes every character that isn't 0-9, A-Z, a-z, or a known delimiter and normalizes it to convert special characters"""
+    return unidecode(re.sub(rf"[^\w{DELIMITERS}]+", "", value))
 
 
 def split_words(value: str) -> list[str]:
diff --git a/pdm.lock b/pdm.lock
index 8e38ab3ea..3f4716d27 100644
--- a/pdm.lock
+++ b/pdm.lock
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 groups = ["default", "dev"]
 strategy = ["inherit_metadata"]
 lock_version = "4.5.0"
-content_hash = "sha256:aadc8a7c11176fc4fef967f0e34f059a3555abcd6626bd0a0b13b898db522860"
+content_hash = "sha256:5fddcaa7019da1947400e02aa57616546ecdee371680ccb7a791f1e2fdf2c368"
 
 [[metadata.targets]]
 requires_python = "~=3.9"
@@ -1016,3 +1016,14 @@ files = [
     {file = "typing_inspection-0.4.1-py3-none-any.whl", hash = "sha256:389055682238f53b04f7badcb49b989835495a96700ced5dab2d8feae4b26f51"},
     {file = "typing_inspection-0.4.1.tar.gz", hash = "sha256:6ae134cc0203c33377d43188d4064e9b357dba58cff3185f22924610e70a9d28"},
 ]
+
+[[package]]
+name = "unidecode"
+version = "1.4.0"
+requires_python = ">=3.7"
+summary = "ASCII transliterations of Unicode text"
+groups = ["default"]
+files = [
+    {file = "Unidecode-1.4.0-py3-none-any.whl", hash = "sha256:c3c7606c27503ad8d501270406e345ddb480a7b5f38827eafe4fa82a137f0021"},
+    {file = "Unidecode-1.4.0.tar.gz", hash = "sha256:ce35985008338b676573023acc382d62c264f307c8f7963733405add37ea2b23"},
+]
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 4f0774df7..faf659a20 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ dependencies = [
     "ruamel.yaml>=0.18.6,<0.19.0",
     "ruff>=0.2,<0.13",
     "typing-extensions>=4.8.0,<5.0.0",
+    "unidecode>=1.4.0",
 ]
 name = "openapi-python-client"
 version = "0.25.2"