As footballers move clubs, especially to the premier league, the question on many peoples minds is do they speak English.
Now, as you will know, the English language is the largest in the world, and as a result, a lot of players will typically have to learn to at least a basic level.
On the pitch, players will use it when communicating, talking to the media and on their own social media to a universal audience.
With that said, there are a few regions in the world that find speaking English hard.
One of which is South America, where many players come from to go and play in Europe.
However, as you would expect, with most of them speaking Spanish/Portuguese, they find the language barrier tricky.
Saying that, though, in this post, we will cover some of the most popular footballers who have put in the effort to learn English and can speak it.
Table of Contents
1) Luis Suarez
Luis Suarez, a player who now plays for Athletico Madrid after moving from Barcelona, enjoyed a successful spell in England.
As the 34-year-old joined Liverpool back in 2011 before leaving three years later in 2014.
Now considering he is from Uruguay like Cavani, you would suspect his English wouldn’t be great.
However, during his time in England, he showed that he was up to speed with the language through various interviews.
Moving to Liverpool FC is a great move for any player as it is one of the top clubs in the world.
But what comes with moving to the city is the challenge of understanding scouse, which can be a hard accent to understand due to how fast its spoken.
Below though, is an interview where he understood and was able to converse back in English.
2) Gabriel Jesus
When the Brazilian first joined the premier league, he spoke almost no English whatsoever.
He was able to mutter some words but couldn’t understand the language in 2017.
However, like his dedication to his game and improving himself, he has improved at English.
So much so that he’s gone from having translators to doing interviews solely in English, which is quite the transformation.
3) Fernandinho
Someone who has helped Jesus settle at Manchester City is fellow club and national teammate Fernandinho.
A player who recently just signed a new deal to stay until 2022 is someone who speaks great English.
Especially considering he is from Brazil, with how different the language is from his native.
What is even more impressive is that he has been speaking great English ever since he moved to city in 2013.
When you consider, he has only played in Brazil and Ukraine, countries not known for speaking English.
As well as the fact that its not taught as part of the education system in Brazil is a credit to him.
4) Ronaldinho
There have been many people wondering whether Ronaldinho speaks English.
The short answer is yes, but not to a fluent nature.
Since he played all his football in Brazil, Spain, and Italy, the Brazilian has likely never felt the need to learn it.
He has though appeared in the UK event Soccer Aid and doing collabs with British YouTubers such as Chunkz.
5) Roberto Firmino
Moving on to another Brazilian born player who plays in England, we have ‘Bobby’ Firmino.
Due to the lack of interviews with the media, it is has left some fans wondering if he speaks any English.
Now when Firmino first joined in 2015, he wasn’t able to speak the language.
However, over the past couple of seasons, he has started to improve.
Going from saying simple sentences to being able to do an interview in English, as you can see below.
6) Edinson Cavani
Edinson Cavani is a well-accomplished footballer, having won multiple titles in France with PSG.
Since leaving for Paris from Naples in 2013, the player looked settled, and a move to England never really seemed on.
However, when his contract was not renewed, it came as a surprise to many football fans that he chose Manchester, especially since he couldn’t speak great English.
Now having spent time in England, his skills for the language aren’t quite at a conversational level. However, there are clips online where he has spoken full sentences.
This includes one viral moment where he said, ‘How French Are You Edinson Cavani, ‘ as you can see in the video below.
He has only been in the country for a year since his free transfer to Manchester United.
But a contract extension of another year should give him time to improve his English further, where we might see an interview on TV.
Conclusion
So those were 6 footballers who are from South America but can speak English to some degree.
If you have any comments, let me know below 🙂
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