One of the last 15 years most famous footballers, Neymar was destined for success outside of Brazil from a very young age.
Signing for Barcelona aged 21 after scoring 135 goals in 225 appearances for Santos, Neymar enjoyed unprecedented success in his 4 years at the Spanish giants.
He was part of the modern era’s most prolific attacking trios, MSN (Messi, Suarez, Neymar) winning everything there is to win at Barcelona, before moving to PSG for a world record fee of 222 million Euros.
You’d think having spent years outside of his native country he’d have picked up some decent language skills but we seldom see examples of him speaking anything other than Portuguese, and the odd bit of Spanish.
Neymar has played in 4 different countries, all with different native languages, spending significant periods of his career in Spain, France and his homeland Brazil.
How Good is Neymar’s English?
Neymar’s English isn’t brilliant, but it’s much better than my Portuguese.
When he first stormed onto the scene, capturing global attention, he knew his destiny lay outside of his homeland, and in preparation for a big move, started to learn both English and Spanish.
Seeing as those nations boasted the world’s best sides at the time, and had the financial capability to afford the lucrative 88 million transfer fee required to prize him away from Brazil, he started to learn English in preparation for a move as a 19-year-old.
After joining Barcelona, there was little reason to continue studying the language, and today it is probably about as good as his French…
How is Neymar’s French?
Pretty poor, considering his 4 years spent there. He can handle the basic stuff to get by in football at best.
While Neymar knew he’d be going to Spain or England a couple of years before his transfer to Barcelona, his move to PSG gave him little time to learn the language.
However, despite signing for them in 2017, Neymar showed little interest in learning or speaking French.
Likely due to the PSG squad comprising of a variety of players from different backgrounds, leaving him able to get by without needing to add French fluency to his CV.
Furthermore, Christoph Galtier was the only French-speaking manager to coach Neymar, with his year-long reign only coming during Neymar’s last season at the club.
There was never a need to learn anything beyond basic French.
Is Neymar Fluent In Spanish?
When it comes to Spanish however, Neymar fares much much better. Considered at worst a good Spanish speaker, and at best entirely fluent, Neymar was learning Spanish before his move to Barcelona.
He revealed in an interview that he had a good understanding of the language as he entered adulthood, taking the time to get even better in preparation for his transfer to the Catalonian club.
This even came in handy during his tenure at PSG, primarily conversing with strike-partner Mbappe in Spanish. They would also speak in English as well, with Mbappe having a solid grasp of both languages.
Can Neymar Speak Arabic?
After his most recent move, Neymar finds himself in Saudi Arabia, where the main language is Arabic.
Since moving, Neyamr has shown glimpses of his Arabic speaking ability, which given the short time he’s been there, suggests he has shown more of a desire and aptitude for Arabic than he did for the French language, though it’s by far his his least fluent language.
But, let’s cut him some slack on that front, he has only been there a few months, but he has been seen immersing himself in Arabic culture.
He has been seen learning to count in Arabic, wearing traditional Arabic garb, taking part in the Saudi National Day celebrations and enjoying famous Arabic tunes.
His Arabic isn’t there yet, but he has shown far more interest in exploring the culture there than he did in his time in France. Whether he will try to properly learn the language or not depends on whether he plans to see out his career there.
