In the Barça dressing room this season there will be as many as eleven possible languages spoken: Catalan, Spanish, English, French, Italian, Dutch, German, Croatian, Portuguese, Bassa and Arabic. Apart from Catalan and Castellano, spoken well by the majority of Luis Enrique’s first team squad, this season German and Croatian must be added, and there were no speakers of those languages last season.
Ivan Rakitic is fluent in both these languages. The Croatian player, born in Switzerland, can communicate in Spanish, English, German and Croatian. In fact, he uses German to communicate with goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen, and Croatian to do the same with Barça B signing Alen Halilovic.
Another two who speak four languages are Rafinha (Catalan, Spanish, Portuguese and English) and Song (English, French, Spanish, and Bassa, an indigenous language of Cameroon). Mathieu and Vermaelen are also fluent in French, whilst Munir El Haddadi, fromBarça B, is the only player who also speaks Arabic. Italian, in this case, is represented by Luis Enrique, who worked for a year in Rome
