Speaking more than one language is always impressive. Some people will speak more than one due to having lived in different countries, or due to having family in different countries.
Others will speak more than one language out of necessity, or to qualify for certain jobs.
And others will speak more than one language out of having learned them for fun, or because they’ve traveled so much that they’ve simply picked them up.
Professional soccer players travel quite a lot and are often moved from one team to another, which can sometimes result in working in a different language.
So, why not find out how many languages the best soccer player in the world speaks?
Currently, that title belongs to Cristiano Ronaldo, a soccer player that has become an absolute legend while playing for Manchester United, Real Madrid, and the Portuguese National soccer team.
We did some research and it turns out that Ronaldo speaks a total of four languages, pretty impressive right?
Those languages are Portuguese, English, Spanish, and Italian. Let’s take a closer look at them all and how fluent he is in each one!
Portuguese
It is no surprise whatsoever that Cristiano Ronaldo is fluent in Portuguese, as it is, after all, his mother tongue!
Ronaldo was born and raised in Funchal, which is located on the Portuguese island of Madeira. Portuguese is, therefore, his first language and the one he speaks the best.
People are sometimes surprised because he isn’t often heard speaking Portuguese.
But that’s because most interviews are in more international languages such as English or Spanish, so he doesn’t get to show his first language off.
However, Ronaldo has taken part in some Portuguese interviews in which you can hear him perfectly speaking in Portuguese!
As a Portuguese native, he is also on the Portuguese National soccer team, so he can be heard speaking in Portuguese amongst his Portuguese co-players.
English
Cristiano Ronaldo hasn’t always spoken English, as it is not the first language to him. However, he can now fluently speak English and hold a conversation without much of a struggle. How is this possible?
When Ronaldo was just 18 years old, he started playing for the Manchester United soccer team, in the English Premier League.
This caused him to move to England, where he lived from 2003 to 2009, for 6 years, while he played for the team.
Interviews from his early days playing for Manchester United show that he didn’t speak the language very well and that he struggled to hold up conversations.
However, after 6 years of living in England Ronaldo has more than picked up the language, and can now hold his own in interviews without a struggle as he has learned to speak the language quite fluently.
His English has also kept getting better with time, despite him no longer living in England.
This is because, as the world’s best soccer player, he takes part in many press conferences, programs, and interviews, as well as having fans from all over the world.
And, of course, English is one of the most international languages, used worldwide as the mediating language! Therefore, Ronaldo has kept speaking in English and will continue to do so!
Spanish
Does Cristiano Ronaldo speak Spanish? The answer is yes! Once again, he did not always speak Spanish but learned it during his journey as a soccer player. Let’s take a look at how exactly he learned it!
In 2009, Ronaldo stopped playing for Manchester United in England, and he joined the Real Madrid soccer team in Spain.
It was actually quite a big deal back then because it was the most expensive transfer in soccer history, with Real Madrid paying 100 million dollars!
(He was already on track to become the best soccer player in the world, so we’re not surprised Real Madrid wanted him that bad!)
Ronaldo, therefore, had to learn to speak Spanish, as teams usually communicate in the language of the country they’re in! Ronaldo might have struggled at first, but not too much, and he soon picked the language up.
He played for Real Madrid, living in Spain, for nine whole years. So Ronaldo is more than confident when speaking Spanish and he’s pretty fluent in it! In fact, it might be his second most fluent language after Portuguese!
It comes as no surprise that Ronaldo picked up speaking in Spanish up so quickly. Portugal is a neighboring country to Spain, and they both have a lot of shared history and culture.
In fact, the Portuguese and Spanish languages aren’t that different at all, and you can easily understand one or the other while only speaking one! This means that it was a lot easier for Ronaldo to pick up Spanish, as it was so similar to his mother tongue.
A lot of his interviews are also in Spanish, as it’s one of the most spoken languages in the world! And he tends to prefer answering questions in Spanish when given the choice!
Italian
The latest language that Ronaldo has had to pick up, is Italian. But as it is a more recent language within his arsenal of tongues, how well does he truly speak it? Let’s take a look!
In 2018, after nine years of playing with Real Madrid, Ronaldo broke many hearts by switching to a different team.
He joined the Juventus Italian soccer club, and therefore moved to Turin, in Italy. Once again, playing for a team with a new language and being in a new country, Ronaldo had to quickly start picking up Italian so that he could communicate with his team co-players, and so that he could make do in his new home.
As Ronaldo could already speak three languages, picking up a fourth wasn’t too much of a challenge.
In fact, it is proven that the more languages you speak the better adapted your brain is at learning new ones! So Cristiano Ronaldo is definitely well-suited and adept at learning new languages in his growing collection!
Since 2018, Ronaldo has been seen speaking some Italian in different interviews, especially those relating to and regarding his role in the Juventus soccer team.
However, Italian seems to be the language he struggles with the most, and he often prefers to answer in English or Spanish if possible.
It’s clear that Italian is the language he is least fluent in, but it is also the one he has been speaking for the least amount of time, so it’s not that odd.
Although Ronaldo is currently slightly uncomfortable when speaking Italian, choosing English or Spanish whenever he can, we’re sure that he will get better and better at it with time.
After all, that’s what happened with English and Spanish!
In Conclusion
Cristiano Ronaldo was born and raised in Portugal, meaning Portuguese is his primary and mother language, which he is completely fluent in.
He can also speak English, Spanish, and Italian, all of them learned during his journey as a soccer player from team to team, and country to country.
He first started to learn English in 2003, and although he struggled at first, it has become one of his preferred languages when speaking in interviews.
It is no wonder, as English is one of the most commonly used languages during international events.
He then first started to learn Spanish in 2009.
He picked this language up extremely fast, as it is very similar to Portuguese with both countries being neighbors and having a lot of culture and history in common.
Spanish is probably his second best language due to how comfortable he is when speaking it.
Lastly, he began learning Italian when he switched to an Italian soccer team in 2018. As it is the most recent language, he’s still struggling with speaking it fluently.
Will he keep on learning more languages? We suppose it depends on what team he plays for next!
