Ranking 9 foreign players who have incredible English accents: Isak, Raya… | OneFootball

Learning a new language is seriously tough, but stars from Liverpool, Arsenal and Aston Villa are among the foreign footballers with incredible English accents.

While most English people limit their interactions in another language to asking for a beer on holiday, this lot have not only learnt English but speak it with the proficiency of a local.

We’ve ranked nine foreign footballers with such good English accents that you’d be forgiven for thinking they’d lived there their entire lives.

9. Thomas Hitzlsperger

Hitzlsperger speaks English with a glorious Brummie-German blend; just listen to how the former midfielder says ‘game’ here.

8. Jeremie Frimpong

Frimpong was born in Amsterdam, but moved to Manchester aged 7 and quickly picked up the local accent.

With your back turned, Frimpong could be any young man slouching around the Trafford Centre or speaking far too loudly on the tram to Shaw & Compton.

There’s also a touch of Glasgweigan in the defender’s voice, a legacy of his time at Celtic.

An authentic hybrid, but we’ve bumped Frimpong down a few places as he spent part of his childhood in England.

7. Wojciech Szczesny

This has impressed us a lot, because Szczesny not only has the accent nailed but also the mannerisms, filler words and pace of speech that is extremely rare in somebody’s second language.

According to some, the goalkeeper stutters in his native Polish but speaks English with heart and soul. What a guy.

6. Amadou Onana

Onana has quite a deep voice and the midfielder’s words come off as almost identical to millions of Londoners.

What’s incredible is that the Aston Villa midfielder didn’t speak a word of English until moving to the Premier League in 2022.

We think Britain’s soft power – including music, television and films – has a lot to answer for here.

5. Alexander Isak

Isak never spent any time in England before joining Newcastle in 2022, but close your eyes and he sounds born and raised in London.

We can only assume the striker was obsessed with Top Boy growing up in Sweden, or has the linguistic malleability of Play-Doh.

4. David Raya

Raya’s accent is a real bag of Revels, hinting at his Spanish origins before throwing in London and Lancashire to the mix.

The goalkeeper came of age at Blackburn Rovers, joining at the age of 16 from Spanish club Cornella.

In an interview with Brentford’s media a few years ago, Raya recalled how he took English-speaking lessons after arriving in England in 2012.

He revealed: “I had just turned 16. There was a cloud over Blackburn – it was always raining! It was completely different to home.

“I came to England with my mum and dad. They stayed for a few days, then left. I was lucky enough to have Hugo Fernandez there and he was very supportive.

“During the week I was busy with training, English lessons and gym work, but at the weekend I’d be sat in a small room on my own.

“I was lucky that I could go across the road to the Mols family but it was definitely the hardest part of the week.”

3. Hector Bellerin

Have you ever met a Spaniard with such a distinctive cockney twang?

Bellerin would compete with Ray Parlour for the highest usage of ‘mate’ in a single conversation. Probably. Televising the contest would improve Sky Sports’ current output by roughly 50%.

2. Neal Maupay

Maupay’s accent is so convincing that we double-took upon learning the former Brentford, Brighton and Everton striker is actually French.

Our first thought afterwards was that there were Englishmen in France speaking the local language with seamless accents, but we can’t quite picture it for some reason.

This guy’s a menace 😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/x1thrd6dKY

1. Jan Molby

Molby endeared himself to the Anfield crowd, but also the people of Liverpool. Not least because of the speed at which he picked up the Scouse accent; the Dane’s interviews became legendary.

“I lived in the city centre, so I dealt with a lot of local people,” Molby told FourFourTwo. “I felt like I spoke good English when I came to the club, but it’s almost a different language in Liverpool.

“I was quick to pick up all of those things. I did show willingness as, in 1984, it was a big thing for an English club to sign a foreign player and I think everybody thought, ‘Is he going to get involved or not?’

“The accent wasn’t deliberate, but I didn’t step away from it, either. It certainly didn’t do any harm, because it made it easier for the local people to warm to me.”

Molby was made an ‘Honourary Scouser’ by the Lord Mayor of Liverpool in 2009, having won three English league titles, two FA Cups and many hearts.