Does Being Bilingual Make You a Better Soccer Coach? | OneFootball

A not-so-scientific dive into MLS managers and the languages they speak.

Do you speak another language? Studies show that over 20% of Americans are bilingual these days. As a White-Guy-Who-Speaks-Decent-Spanish™, I know firsthand the benefits of being able to express yourself in more ways than one.

As a language teacher for many years, I’ve also seen the confusion and frustration that comes from not being able to adequately express what’s on your mind. Poor communication routinely causes angst, homesickness, and fears of inadequacy among immigrants.

Professional soccer players are certainly not immune from these tribulations. While the media generally sees footballers and their language acumen as a source of clownish fun (think of Carlos Tevez getting mocked ceaselessly for his famous “very difficult” interview), the reality is that modern soccer clubs have been forced to completely overhaul their protocols for signing and embedding new players to be able to get them up to speed both culturally and linguistically.

Coaches have a vital role to play in the acclimatization and success of their international players. Jose Mourinho, Arsene Wenger, Pep Guardiola, and Carlo Ancelotti are all noted polyglots, able to handle themselves in the major European languages, and even Japanese in the case of Wenger. Mikel Arteta can be observed on the sideline shouting in English, Spanish, Catalan, and French all in the course of one match. None of these guys, however, hold a candle to current Phoenix Rising coach Pa-Modou Kah, who is reported as being fluent in upwards of eight languages.

But most of these guys are European. Owing to geographical tininess, Schengen-Zone border liberties, and functional education systems, surely these individuals have a marked advantage when it comes to developing language proficiency. How does being American and operating in a predominantly English-speaking environment change this calculus?

Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty Images

Major League Soccer has developed into an aspirational destination for international players of all stripes. So, in American sports, who is the individual most responsible for building relationships with the oftentimes eclectic group of players on any given roster? The public-facing image of any club often runs primarily through the head coach.

The culture of American sports, with our Tom Landrys, Greg Popoviches, and Bill Belichiks only increases our propensity for idol worship. We believe in our coaches more. We give them all the more credit when they win, and lay almost all the blame at their feet when they lose.

At risk of sounding too much like Nathan Fielder’s The Rehearsal, it’s abundantly clear that many players (and by extension, their performances) live and die based on their relationships with their coaches. How many times have we heard horror stories about players being “frozen out” based on personality clashes? And how does a language barrier contribute to these impasses? Modern clubs employ veritable armies of assistant coaches, language instructors, and consultants in an effort to get out ahead of potential issues, but at the end of the day the relationship between player and coach is paramount. After all, there’s only one person with the power to add your name to the team sheet or leave you off.

Digging a little deeper for all you language nerds out there, we also have the pesky little concept of linguistic determinism. This is the theory, first proposed by American linguists Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf, that human beings filter every experience through our linguistic filters, and that speaking different languages can literally cause us to have differentiation in our very cognitive processes.

What does this mean for soccer, you ask? Simply put: a multi-lingual coach might have tactical, training, or man-management insight and abilities that a purely English-speaking coach might be cognitively locked out of. This field of study has been under-researched, it’s fair to say, and I will leave the hardcore psycholinguistic analysis to people who are much smarter than me. Perhaps MLS should look at bringing in Noam Chomsky as a consultant?

That said, let’s examine the current crop of MLS managers, how many languages they each speak, and how that may have helped or hindered their overall performance.

The pool of current MLS coaches can be linguistically described as having four major archetypes, albeit with a few notable exceptions.

The American Dudes: Pat Noonan, Troy Lesesne, Eric Quill, Ben Olsen, BJ Callaghan, Caleb Porter, David Critchley, Kerry Zavagnin, Bruce Arena, Brian Schmetzer, Dean Smith

What do you call someone who speaks three languages? Trilingual.

What do you call someone who speaks two languages? Bilingual.

What do you call someone who speaks one language? American!

It’s no secret that Americans are notoriously monolingual. A blunt explanation is that these individuals have simply never needed to use another language in a high-pressure situation, and therefore have been immune from having to learn, despite accumulating some pretty impressive Duolingo streaks along the way. Most of these MLS coaches never played or coached abroad, although Ben Olsen spent a season on loan at Nottingham Forest. You’ll also notice that Dean Smith and David Critchley, English guys, were included as honorary American Dudes.

These head coaches rely heavily on interpreters and other players to communicate tactical ideas to players who might not speak much English. But many of them will report having picked up words and phrases in Spanish (or other languages) along their coaching journey, which may or may not be particularly helpful when explaining complex tactical decisions.

It was also tempting to omit Bruce Arena and Brian Schmetzer from this group, given that they are the children of Italian and German immigrants, respectively. However, there is little evidence that either of them grew up speaking these languages, and that it had any impact on their development as soccer coaches.

FC Cincinnati manager Pat Noonan once remarked that he relied heavily on a French-speaking interpreter to communicate with the late Aaron Boupendza. Boupendza was a high-profile signing from Al-Shabab in Saudi Arabia, and he famously struggled to adapt to MLS and live up to expectations. Noonan and Boupendza never seemed to take to one another all that well, with miscommunication apparently clouded in terms of Boupendza’s availability for selection following injury issues.

That Cincinnati team won the Supporter’s Shield with Boupendza contributing seven goals, but who knows how much more productive the forward would have been had there not been wrinkles in his relationship with Noonan? Notably, that FC Cincinnati squad had only one other native French speaker in the squad, Senegalese international Dominique Badji. Boupendza would be released after only one season with the club, moving to Rapid Bucharest in Romania before making the switch to China, where he met a tragic end.

This case just might present a microcosm of the importance of communication between players and coaches, but what do these monolingual coaches have in common tactically?

American sports culture has given us another wonderful thought-device that might be applicable in this conversation: the Coaching Tree. The development of many of these coaches can be traced directly to the greats of American soccer, be it Arena or Bob Bradley. Tactics and man-management strategies are more or less inherited from the previous generation of coaches.

None of these coaches ever really made an attempt to play or coach overseas, maybe owing to the fact that they’re limited linguistically. Noonan at least tried his hand playing in Norway at Aalesund, but only lasted eight games before begging to be loaned back to New England.

This lack of adventurous spirit will come into play when we later discuss the likes of Chris Armas, who, despite England also being an English-speaking environment, eschewed continuing in MLS to go learn under Ralf Rangnick during his tenure at Manchester United. Armas returned to MLS with Colorado and has, by all accounts, grown tactically because of his experience overseas.

The Erudite Foreigner: Sandro Schwarz, Ronny Deila, Nico Estevez, Wilfried Nancy, Marco Donadel, Pascal Jansen, Oscar Pareja, Bradley Carnell, Jesper Sorensen, Eric Ramsay, Javier Mascherano

We’ve all met that person, maybe it’s an exchange student or friend from abroad, who insists that their English is terrible and then proceeds to speak it better than most members of our own families.

Many of these coaches fit that mold. Oftentimes their linguistic acumen stems from international playing and coaching careers. In a few cases these coaches come from countries and environments where speaking more than one language is the rule rather than the exception.

Pascal Jansen of NYCFC was born in England and grew up in a bilingual household. Philadelphia Union’s Bradley Carnell grew up speaking English in South Africa (as well as Afrikaans) but then had to learn German while playing over a decade across the Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga.

Orlando City manager Oscar Pareja learned English as an MLS player, first for the New England Revolution and then the Dallas Burn, who rebranded to FC Dallas in Pareja’s final season with the club.

CF Montreal’s Marco Donadel speaks Italian and English, and has been working on his French since his return to Montreal, this time as a manager.

Spaniard Nico Estevez of Austin FC improved his English as a member of Gregg Berhalter’s coaching staff in Columbus, first hired way back in 2014, but he also comes from a bilingual Spanish and Catalan background.

Atlanta United manager Ronny Deila is a native Norwegian speaker but now handles English expertly, given that he coached at Celtic (Scottish being a non-standard version of English, aside) and NYCFC before being hired at Atlanta last year. He’s also on record saying that he’s trying to improve his Spanish to improve communication with Atlanta’s Hispanic players.

David Berding/Getty Images

Eric Ramsay of Minnesota United presents an interesting case with regards to the soccer benefits of multilingualism. He was born in Wales and grew up speaking English and Welsh, but his bohemian parents moved around regularly during his childhood and he spent time in both Spain and France as a child.

He’s been bullish about his language-learning abilities, once claiming in an interview that “If, for example, tomorrow, I had an offer from PSG to go and be their manager, I feel pretty confident (that) in a couple of months, I’ll be able to get to a really proficient level.”

Ramsay was also reportedly able to take advantage of his Spanish-language fluency to have a close personal relationship with Argentinean superstar Emanuel Reynoso, which would have been especially difficult given that Reynoso had gone AWOL after skipping his Green Card interview appointment and returning to Argentina without the club’s permission.

All of this cultural flexibility must be seen as a benefit in the world of soccer coaching. Wilfried Nancy, for example, wrote at length in an Op-Ed for the MLS website about the importance of diversity and representation as a Black, French-speaking manager in Montreal.

In Nancy’s experience, coming to MLS as an outsider reinforced the feelings of alienation that he’d known all his life. He discussed learning about the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and that he knew of managers throughout the course of his career who attempted to forbid their own players from observing the fasting requirements of that holy period. That seems to me like a one-way ticket to a fractured relationship.

Nancy is also reportedly learning Spanish to be able to better connect with his Hispanic players. This seems like a guy who intrinsically gets the importance of player-coach relationships, and it’s no surprise that he’s harbored a reputation as one of the best man-managers in the entire league.

Megan Briggs/Getty Images

Astute readers will notice that Javier Mascherano has been included in this category of managers. I debated giving him a category all to himself, but it’s obvious that Mascherano’s circumstances are full of caveats that might not exactly apply to his fellow MLS coaches.

For one, Mascherano spent years playing in England, and in most recent interviews his English is pretty decent. Secondly, Mascherano knowingly took the coaching job in Miami to be with his buddies Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez, both of whom are loath to speak English in public.

Miami has a sort of mythical status in Argentinean culture. There is no greater aspirational vacation destination than South Beach for your average Argentinean, and the greater Miami area is home to the largest concentration of Argentines in the United States.

That said, given Mascherano’s player pool and location, speaking English fluently might not be a huge deal for him. Mascherano has made it clear that he’s here for a good time, not a long time, and he displays an antipathy for American culture that borders on impressive.

The Bridge Generation: Chris Armas, Pablo Mastroeni, Mikey Varas, Robin Fraser

This group of coaches might know better than anyone what it means to be caught in the middle of multiple cultures.

“Bridge Generation” is a term used in education and immigrant advocacy to describe children who were either born in the United States to immigrant parents, or who moved to the United States as very young children. Generally these kids will speak one language fluently at home, and learn to speak English like native speakers in school.

These second-generation immigrants are generally characterized by extreme flexibility and the ability to conform to any new social or professional situations. This stems from the notion that a person has to change one’s personality depending on their surroundings. You may have heard the term “code-switching” used to describe the change in language use that’s required of many non-white people operating in American society.

Real Salt Lake manager Pablo Mastroeni was born in Argentina and moved to the United States at four years old. He went on to become something of a U.S. men’s national team legend, playing in both the 2002 and 2006 World Cups. Speaking fluent Spanish, Mastroeni was able to foster a strong working relationship with the Colorado Rapids’ first-ever Designated Player, Panamanian international Gabriel Torres, when he signed for the club in 2013.

Mastroeni has been vocal about the need for U.S. Soccer to cultivate more connection with the Hispanic community. He celebrated the hiring of the Spanish-speaking Mauricio Pochettino as USMNT head coach, telling Goal.com, “A coach who speaks their language and understands their values fosters trust and loyalty,” and “Soccer in the Latino community is deeply tied to cultural identity. So wearing the U.S. jersey means carrying the stories of those families, cultural pride, and the struggle to belong.”

It’s clear that Mastroeni is speaking from a deeply personal place, and that he understands the challenges of being the “other,” caught between cultures and languages.

Mikey Varas of San Diego FC was born in California to a Chilean father and American mother. He went on to live in Chile for a spell and play youth soccer in the academy of Universidad Catolica in Santiago. After college, he spent a season playing professionally at Santiago Wanderers.

Varas credits his coaching success with studying various footballing philosophies from around the world, notably learning from a professor who specialized in the Fiorentina Method, as well as studying at a youth academy in Argentina called “Barcelona Juniors Lujan.” Without his Spanish-speaking background, it’s difficult to imagine Varas having this opportunity.

Robin Fraser is a bit of a different case, having moved from Jamaica to Miami as a young child. Despite Jamaica being an English-speaking country (although there are debates as to whether Jamaican Patois ought to be considered a separate language), Fraser will have certainly experienced the same difficulties navigating a new and different culture than that of his family.

So what impact does this cultural and linguistic flexibility have on the tactical acumen of these coaches? It stands to reason that the diverse footballing cultures of the world will be more accessible to coaches who are used to operating in more than one paradigm. Mastroeni and Fraser, notably, have never actually put that to the test overseas, and among this group they have been less successful as MLS coaches (albeit Varas is quite early in his tenure).

The Weeaboos: Steve Cherundolo, Phil Neville, Greg Vanney, Gregg Berhalter

The theater kid with his nose stuck in a book of useful French expressions. The manga-obsessed child who swears they’re gonna move to Japan after graduation. The guy who starts dating a foreign girl and adopts all her mannerisms.

Not all Americans (or Brits, for that matter) are incurably monolingual. Some of us like learning other languages, okay?

Steve Cherundolo — LAFC manager for now — moved to Germany as a player in 1999, spending a remarkable 16 seasons with Hannover 96, bouncing between the Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. My man loved Germany so much that he went full German, marrying a German, having German-speaking kids, and buying a nice house near Hannover to live in when he’s not coaching soccer.

Phil Neville also speaks pretty decent Spanish, stemming from his time in Valencia as an assistant coach for his brother, Gary. He reportedly learned a variety of crude Argentinean slang from Gonzalo Higuain during his time at Inter Miami, and there are plenty of internet videos of him speaking surprisingly-good Spanish, albeit with a thick Northern English accent.

Greg Vanney speaks Spanish, although I haven’t really been able to pinpoint why, and decent French from his four seasons he spent at Bastia in Corsica. He was instrumental in helping Victor Vasquez adjust to life in MLS.

The grand poobah of language-loving American coaches just happens to be Triple-G himself, Gregg Berhalter. Berhalter was never afraid of spending a little time abroad, and he spent seven seasons in the Netherlands and eight seasons in Germany playing as a center back.

His Spanish is so good that he was legitimately on the verge of being signed as Club America’s head coach back in 2023 before the deal fell through. As USMNT coach, Berhalter was beloved by the players (perhaps to the detriment of the tactical side of things), and always did decently in recruiting dual-nationals to the setup. Speaking four languages will certainly go a long way in communicating with players of all different backgrounds.

Conclusions

We could take these categories and dive into advanced statistics, like points-per-game to make crude judgements about the benefits of being a multilingual coach. However, there are so many other factors to account for that doing so would feel flimsy, like painting with the broadest of broad brushes.

It is fair to conclude, on the other hand, that if you were an MLS owner tasked with hiring your next head coach, there seems to be very little downside to seeking someone out who is able to speak multiple languages.

Perhaps speaking the languages themselves is slightly incidental, although there do seem to be some benefits to making personal connections with players of diverse backgrounds. What’s more useful, it would seem, is taking into account the backgrounds of these coaches which led to them being multilingual in the first place. Multilingualism speaks to a curiosity of mind and a thirst for knowledge and growth that all coaches of high-level sports need to cultivate. If anything, maybe this phenomenon will inspire American cultures to pack their bags and go get some experience in the far-flung corners of the world.