Mikel Arteta in his time at Arsenal has established himself as one of the top managers in the footballing world.
The Spaniard has shown his tactical prowess on the pitch, but we’ve slowly come to know that he has much more in his managerial repertoire than just tactics.
Beyond the tactics are Arteta’s rather eccentric methods of working with his squad, whether that’s his team talks or team dinners, he’s always looking for different ways to convey his message.
From wheeling in a light bulb for his pre match speech to hiring pickpockets to make sure his players are aware, Arteta’s thinking is creative, and maybe a little crazy.
However it wasn’t an eccentricity that’s left fans amazed by the Spaniard, but the fact that he is a polyglot.
During a Champions League post-match press conference after Arsenal’s goalless draw against Atalanta at the Gewiss Stadium, Arteta surprised everyone by smoothly switching from English to fluent Italian.
This switch came after an Italian journalist questioned him in Italian, which was bound to happen considering Arsenal were playing away from home. Usually the managers have someone translating foreign languages for them, but Arteta was in no need for such help.
The game itself had been a hard-fought contest, with goalkeeper David Raya making a miraculous double save to help the Gunners secure a crucial point.
But Arteta stole some of the spotlight as the Arsenal boss delivered a three-minute response in perfect Italian—much to the astonishment of fans and media alike.
The most intriguing part about this moment? Nobody had ever heard Arteta speak Italian before.
Arteta has had an impressive playing career, having played for clubs like Barcelona, PSG and Arsenal, the midfielder never played in the Serie A or in Italy.
The same goes for his coaching and managerial journey, Arteta has spent no time professionally in Italy.
This left many wondering how he managed to acquire such fluency in a language he seemingly never had to use, making his command over the Italian language more impressive than it already was.
So one wonders how he learnt Italian even though he didn’t necessarily need to learn it. From what we know Arteta is Hispanic, and has no Italian roots in his family.
The truth is both Italian and Spanish are remarkably similar languages, as they both come from Roman times.
According to Ethnologue, Italian and Spanish have a lexicon similarity coefficient of 0.82, which means that 82% of the of the vocabulary in Spanish and Italian are mutually intelligible, so speakers of either language would be able to understand more than 4 out of every 5 words.
Both Italian and Spanish also have similar vowel and consonant sounds, clear pronunciation and even gendered nouns and pronouns.
The learning of the Italian language came purely from passion for the Spaniard. He loved the culture of the country and also the language, so he went the extra step to learn the language as well.
In fact, the Spaniard doesn’t just speak Italian—he is fluent in Spanish, Basque, Catalan, and English, and can also speak French and Portuguese. Spanish and Portuguese also share a similarity, but this doesn’t take away from the fact that Arteta went the extra mile of learning the language nonetheless.
A True Polyglot
One might think Basque, Spanish and Catalan are all similar languages, but in reality they have many differences. For starters, Basque, the region in which Arteta grew up has a language that doesn’t come from Roman times.
Basque is an indigenous language spoken by people in the western Pyrenees, and is unrelated to Spanish or any other known language and Catalan is a Western Romance language but has more complex phonology, with distinct vowel sounds.
When it comes to his French and Portuguese speaking abilities, Arteta revealed in an interview on Sky Sports’ YouTube channel as to how he ended up learning both of these languages.
The Spanish midfielder learnt French during his 18 month loan stint at PSG in 2001, which is extremely impressive considering he wasn’t there for a permanent move and learning a language in a short time is a tedious task.
On speaking Portuguese Arteta said, “I had some Portuguese speakers throughout my career and they became really close friends. I build relationships and you need a language in order to do that so I was very interested on that.”
All these languages that Arteta can speak highlights his commitment, both as a player and a manager in making connections with people everywhere he goes, a life skill that possibly makes him the kind of person and manager he is today.