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Important languages in world football | ||
Tags: Football/Soccer | Language Importance | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Jon1991 Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5369 days ago 98 posts - 126 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, French, Russian | Message 1 of 5 26 April 2010 at 8:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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With the World Cup 2010 coming up this summer, I was thinking of what are the most important languages in world football. I'm a passionate football fan and here's my list:
1. Spanish - Football is undoubtedly the number one sport in Spain and Latin America. Spain has one of the strongest leagues in football (La Liga Primera Division) and some of the biggest clubs are based in Spanish speaking countries such as Barcalona, Real Madrid, Valencia, Boca Juniors, River Plate. The sSpanish speaking countries have strong national teams and have produced players such as Di Stefano, Maradona, Messi, Raul, Casillas, Torres, Batistuta.....the list goes on. 2. English - Football was invented in Britain and England is home to the strongest league in world football with clubs such as Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Newcastle, Spurs, all of which have large fan bases worldwide. English is technically the worlds lingua franca and is also used in Africa, Oceania and the America's. Britain has produced players such as Bobby Moore, Gary Linekar, Bobby Charlton, George Best, Alan Hansen, Kenny Daghleish, Alan Shearer, David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand etc. 3. French - Although France is known as a country with a relaxed attitude to sports, football remains the most popular sport. French is also used in many African nations such as Cameroon, Togo, Cote D'Ivoire and Burkina Faso. The French Ligue 1 is also a fairly strong league and the France National Team has been strong over last 20 years. 4. Portuguese - The English may have invented football but the Brazillians perfected it. Brazil is the greatest national team ever and Portugal has also produced fine talents for such as small country. Every top division club side in Europe has at least one Brazillian player. Ronaldo, Pele, Euseibio, Zico, Romario, Rivaldo, Cafu, Ronaldinho, Cristiano Ronaldo, Luis Figa....they all speak Portuguese as their mother tongue. 5. Italian - Italy has won the world cup a second best 4 times (after Brazils 5) and the Italian Serie A is one of the strongest and tactically aware leagues in the world. Italy is a popular destination for many South American footballers. AC Milan, Inter, Juventus, Roma, Lazio are all huge clubs. 6. German - Germany is arguably the most consistent performer at national tournements. They have won the world cup an impressive 3 times and the Bundesliga is and always will be a strong, wealthy league with many viewers in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Eastern Europe. Bayern Munchen, Brossia Dortmund, Hamburg are some of the biggest clubs. 7. Dutch - The Netherlands has been a runner up at the world cup twice and the national team always produces high class talent. The EreDivisie is a fairly strong but not dominant league with club sides such as Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord. Suriname has also produced some quality footballers such as Ruud Guillet, Frank Rijjkaard, Egdar Davids, Ryan Babel, Patrick Klivert. 8. Russian - The Russian Premier League is a rising power. 9. Japanese - The J-League is the best and most popular league in Asia. 10. Turkish/Greek/Swedish/Arabic/Serbo-Croat. Edited by Jon1991 on 26 April 2010 at 9:04pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Saif Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5616 days ago 122 posts - 208 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Levantine)*, French | Message 2 of 5 26 April 2010 at 9:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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Good list. I would rank Arabic (and perhaps the entire group you have with Arabic) higher
than Russian and Japanese. Football is the most popular sport in the Arab world (~300 million speakers) and European football is followed closely. Edited by Saif on 26 April 2010 at 9:04pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Jon1991 Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5369 days ago 98 posts - 126 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, French, Russian | Message 3 of 5 26 April 2010 at 9:06pm | IP Logged | ||
True that football is very popular in Arab nations, but their domestic leagues and national teams are not as strong as the others and they have not produced top class players. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Fat-tony Nonaglot Senior Member United Kingdom jiahubooks.co.uk Joined 6144 days ago 288 posts - 441 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Russian, Esperanto, Thai, Laotian, Urdu, Swedish, French Studies: Mandarin, Indonesian, Arabic (Written), Armenian, Pali, Burmese | Message 4 of 5 27 April 2010 at 8:04pm | IP Logged | ||
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It difficult to pinpoint what languages are used in football and some very unusual
linguistic situations arise. I know that the big 3 in Holland (and probably others like Twente) use English in the dressing room. I think that also most big clubs (i.e. those with say 6 or more foreigners) in Germanic speaking country will revert to English as a lingua franca. Again, although Scandinavia produces a large number of professionals, especially in relation to their populations, (I think Iceland has the highest number of pros per capita) most top players leave at an early age and will learn the "host" language, normally extremely well. Of course, this doesn't mean all the players speak perfect English. On Sunday I heard a former England manager Graham Taylor (terrible manager but I like him as a pundit) saying that speaking Spanish or French would be a real advantage for any young English managers. There was one very odd situation about 5 or so years ago when a very attack-minded Freiburg or Nuremburg team were using ROMANIAN on the training ground such was the Romanian connection. I think they played with a 2-6-2 formation and also had 4-5 typically flamboyant Georgian players in the squad. Personally, I would rank the South-Slavic languages much higher, I think that after Brazil, the former Yugoslav republics export the most professional footballers in the world. And I also think that Korean is much more important than Japanese. Although the J-Leagues is stronger than the K-League I think here are many more Korean players playing around the world, notably in Europe. Ah, language and football, I could ramble on for hours... EDITED TO ADD: I'm very happy to see you've included Spurs as a big team:) Edited by Fat-tony on 27 April 2010 at 8:05pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7019 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 5 01 May 2010 at 1:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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I agree with the list and I'm happy that you called it football and not soccer.
P.S. Spurs as a big team? Are you kidding? ...... .....just joking Tony! :) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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