Matt Doherty might’ve been cut out by Tottenham Hotspur in the January window, but he’s still having a lot of fun with his Ireland national teammates on Instagram.
The Irishman was signed by Atletico Madrid on a free transfer in the winter window – following the footsteps of Kieran Trippier – and is still adapting to his new life in Spain.
However, it appears that Doherty is at least working on improving his Spanish vocabulary – which is essential for him to excel in the country. He is probably taking Spanish lessons and has already learned how to write some stuff in the language too.
Doherty is well aware that he’ll need a full understanding of Spanish to get properly integrated into the Atletico squad. The La Liga giants have a majority of domestic players, with the foreign players all being fluent in Spanish too.
But it appears that the Irish defender is actually having a lot of fun learning the new language and is even supported in his quest by his national team teammates as well.
Irish Footballers Speaking Spanish?!
Doherty achieved a major personal achievement during the March International break and was able to captain the Republic of Ireland national team in their 3-2 win over Latvia on Thursday, 23 March.
With Seamus Coleman not playing, Doherty was able to replace him in the lineup and also play as his national team captain in front of a packed Aviva Stadium.
He would go on to celebrate the feat on Instagram after the game, but by writing a basic caption in English, Doherty posted something different by writing it in Spanish instead.
Instead of a normal caption, he wrote his caption by writing: “Un verdadero honor capitanear a mi pais. Vamos Chicos @irelandfootball.”
This basically translates to this: “A true honour to captain my country. Come on @irelandfootball.”
In a rather hilarious turn of events, his Ireland teammates also caught onto what he did and supported his case by all writing their congratulatory messages in Spanish as well.
His ex-Tottenham Hotspur teammate and Irish striker Troy Parrott wrote ‘Doctora’, which translates to ‘female doctor’. Wigan Athletic defender James McClean wrote ‘Líder inspirador,’ which translates to ‘inspirational leader’.
Preston North End midfielder Alan Browne also praised his teammate for his achievement and wrote ‘Mi Capitana’, which translates to ‘My Captain’.
It’s very likely that the majority of the Irish teammates probably had to consult Google Translate to do the translation for them before they were able to post these comments.
Doherty’s former Tottenham teammate Sergio Reguillon was also impressed by this, as he slyly commented ‘Buen espanyol amigo’, which basically means ‘Nice Spanish friend’.
Reguillon, of course, is fluent in Spanish as he was raised in the country and used to play for Real Madrid before joining Spurs.
At a point of time when footballers are scoffed upon for their robotic social media post captions, at least Doherty’s innovative one amused his Irish teammates and also help boast his Spanish vocabulary too.
