As they say, football is a universal language. Usually, English is the linguafranca. From Rio to Reykjavik, youngsters might understand words like ‘shoot’ or ‘pass’, ‘goal’ or ‘save’.
But what about the professional game — when the instructions can be a little more complicated?
An estimated 63% of Premier League players are foreign. This means that there may be some logistical challenges when they first join a club here in the United Kingdom.
Liverpool’s summer signing Darwin Nunez has admitted he does not understand manager Jurgen Klopp yet. “We don’t talk much,” he said. “I don’t know English, he doesn’t know Spanish.”
Fortunately for the £85million ($94m) striker, Liverpool’s assistant manager Pep Lijnders and another coach Vitor Matos speak Portuguese, so they are able to get the message across.
“They are the translators when Klopp talks to the group,” Nunez told TNT Sports Brasil. “They sit next to me and explain what I have to do. If they didn’t explain it to me, I’d enter the field with no idea what to do.”
This can prove to be a greater challenge if there are no native speakers in the club who can translate.
Everton signed Ukraine’s international Vitalii Mykolenko, Dynamo Kyiv. The 23-year-old is the only Ukrainian at the club and gave his first interview in his native language with subtitles on the club’s media.
The Athletic understood that this was more of an issue of confidence. The defender had enough English to get by and has since improved. He was also given lots of support as he adapts life in Merseyside.
