The globalization of professional soccer has turned players into polyglots, even as global entertainment is increasingly siloed.
As soccer professionalized, clubs realized that verbal communication was an “essential working tool,” the Financial Times wrote: “Some multinational businesses could learn from the linguistic sophistication of football teams.”
De facto polyglots, Belgians are coveted for their ease in slotting into international squads, and even the “famously monolingual” English are learning German and Spanish.
The World Cup is the rare event that commands global attention, as entertainment platforms amplify “distinctively local preferences,” The Economist noted: 18 of Denmark’s top 20 songs in 2025 were in Danish, up from 5 in 2019, and in India, Hindi has lost share to Malayalam and Odia.
