A fun article from today’s Marca, talking about the languages used in Madrid’s locker room.
Did you know that José Mourinho uses four languages on a daily basis to communicate with his players? Our coach speaks five languages – Portuguese, Spanish, English, Italian and French – and Italian is the only one he’s not able to use with Real Madrid.
If Mou wants to speak with the Portuguese and Brazilians, he uses Portuguese. This is also the language he opts for he speaks with his technical staff, unless Aitor Karanka is present (although I wouldn’t be surprised if Aitor ends up fluent in Portuguese by the end of the season). If he wants to communicate with Lass, Benzema and Adebayor, he uses French. And with the Germans, English is used. With Jerzy Dudek, either English or Spanish would be sufficient. And of course for the Spaniards and Argentines, the choice is Spanish, the same as when he wants to speak with the entire group.
Of those that don’t speak Spanish fluently yet, Benzema is improving quickly, and has even given interviews and press conferences in Spanish. He no longer takes classes. Lass, on the other hand, still does not speak Spanish. And with regards to the Germans, Sami has been learning at a much faster pace than Mesut, and both of them still study with professors.