Language no barrier to foreign stars who are gracing our game

WATCHING the German Thomas Tuchel speak perfect English lucidly after England's impressive win in Serbia made me think about how well non-British sports people speak our language.

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Much of the world speak English or Spanish, the former increasing with the influence of the United States.

Most of us do not speak a foreign language. We expect people to speak English.

I can only admire the likes of Tuchel and fellow German Jurgen Klopp who speak English so well.

In fairness, several England internationals mastered other languages when living and playing abroad. Three that spring to mind are Kevin Keegan of Hamburg and Tony Woodcock of Cologne who are fluent in German and the late Trevor Francis, who spoke Italian after spells with Sampdoria and Atalanta.

Trevor loved Italy so much. He would only drink Italian wine and loved Italian restaurants, particularly Lucio restaurant in London's Fulham Road which is owned by his great friend Lucio Altana.

The late Gianluca Vialli came from wealthy parents and enjoyed a good education in Italy where he learnt English. He was keen when Chelsea manager to learn colloquialisms.

When I was ITV's football interviewer, I was covering Chelsea in the first leg of their European Champions League knockout tie at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea won 1-0 and afterwards with about 11 million watching live I asked Vialli if 1-0 was enough to take to the away second leg in Turin.

He said: "We must not count our potatoes!"

The phrase, of course, is: "We must not count our chickens."