Cristiano Ronaldo is a professional football player who is widely regarded as one of the best players of all time.
I was wondering how many languages Ronaldo speaks, so I did some research, and here’s what I found.
This post will go into detail on what languages Ronaldo speaks, how fluent he is in them and includes some videos of him speaking each language.
Table of Contents
What Languages Does Cristiano Ronaldo Speak?
Cristiano Ronaldo speaks 4 languages to varying levels. Cristiano Ronaldo speaks Portuguese, English, Spanish and Italian.
Ronaldo definitely speaks some of these languages better than others but he can certainly hold a conversation in each of them.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s Native Language
Cristiano Ronaldo’s native language is Portuguese as he was born in Madeira, Portugal in 1985 to a Portuguese family.
Ronaldo was raised from birth on the island of Madeira. He eventually moved to the Portuguese mainland at age 14 to focus on his football career when he was signed by Sporting CP who are based in Lisbon, Portugal.
As Ronaldo has spoken Portuguese since he was a small child, it is his best language and the language that he’s most comfortable speaking in.
We don’t hear Ronaldo speaking Portuguese often to the press. This is likely because English and Spanish are more well-known, international languages that more people can understand.
He is super proud of his Portuguese roots though and even captains the Portugal national team who take part in international football competitions like the World Cup.
He can sometimes be heard speaking Portuguese amongst his teammates and in the occasional interview.
Here’s a video of Cristiano Ronaldo speaking Portuguese:
Does Ronaldo Speak English?
Yes, Ronaldo can speak English fluently as he lived and worked in the UK for 6 years whilst playing for Manchester United.
In 2003, Ronaldo was signed by the English football team Manchester United after they played his team and lost.
The English team was so impressed with Ronaldo that they signed him immediately and he moved to England.
He initially played for Manchester United from 2003 until 2009 but was signed by them again in 2021.
As Ronaldo spent 6 years living in England, he became fully fluent in the English language although he does still maintain a slight Portuguese accent.
Interviews from the start of his career in Manchester show that he didn’t speak much English at all when he first joined the team in 2003 and he actually struggled to hold a conversation.
Check out the video below which shows Ronaldo’s first ever English interview:
As you can see from the video, Ronaldo struggled to understand the interviewer’s question and couldn’t even give a response.
It didn’t take him long to become fluent though as a few years later, he was able to speak the language with ease.
Check out Cristiano Ronaldo speaking English more recently in the video below:
As you can see, Ronaldo can speak English fluently now however he does still make a lot of grammatical errors and has a strong Portuguese accent.
Having said that, his English is pretty good and he can easily be understood which is the most important thing.
We often see Ronaldo speaking English during press conferences and interviews and he appears to be very comfortable using the language.
Even after leaving Manchester United in 2009, he still spoke English regularly and has maintained his level to this day.
Does Ronaldo Speak Spanish?
Yes, Ronaldo can speak Spanish fluently as he lived in Madrid, Spain for 9 years whilst playing for Real Madrid.
From 2009 to 2018, Ronaldo played for the Spanish football team Real Madrid. At the time, it was the most expensive football transfer in history, costing the team $100 million.
During this time, he lived in Madrid, Spain. As he would have been surrounded by the Spanish language on a daily basis for 9 years, it’s hardly surprising that Ronaldo learned to speak Spanish fluently.
Ronaldo learned Spanish pretty quickly after arriving in Madrid and still speaks the language fluently today even though he’s no longer based in Madrid.
This may partly be due to the fact that his long-term partner is a native Spanish speaker so he likely uses the language with her daily.
Ronaldo picked up Spanish pretty quickly after arriving in Madird. Spanish and his native Portuguese share many similarities so this is likely why he picked it up so fast.
Check out Cristiano Ronaldo speaking Spanish in the video below during a press conference:
As you can see from the video, Ronaldo appears to be extremely comfortable speaking Spanish and has no problems getting his point across.
Carlos, a native Spanish speaker who runs the YouTube channel ‘Casa Spanish’, analyzed Ronaldo’s Spanish in a video.
He said that Ronaldo does make the odd mistake when speaking Spanish. Most of his errors are in pronunciation, which mainly stems from the fact that he’s a native Portuguese speaker.
You can see his full analysis of Ronaldo’s Spanish in the video below:
Did you know? Ronaldo isn’t the only footballer that learned Spanish for their job. Karim Benzema learned Spanish when he joined Real Madrid.
Does Ronaldo Speak Italian?
Yes, Ronaldo can speak Italian to a conversational level.
From 2018 to 2021, Ronaldo played for the Italian football club Juventus and during this time he moved to Turin in Italy.
When moving to a new country, it’s always a good idea to learn to speak the local language which is exactly what Ronaldo did.
Although Ronaldo can definitely speak some Italian, he isn’t super confident in the language.
In several interviews, we’ve seen him being asked a question in Italian and he often replies in either Spanish or English instead.
You can see this in the video below:
As you can see in the video, Ronaldo was asked a question in Italian. He clearly understood the question completely but chose to respond in English rather than Italian.
It’s unclear if he chose to reply in English as it’s a more internationally understood language or because he wasn’t comfortable speaking Italian but he has done this on several other occasions.
He has demonstrated multiple times though that he can speak Italian at least to a conversational level.
Check out Cristiano Ronaldo speaking Italian in the video below:
Does Ronaldo Speak French?
No, Ronaldo cannot speak French however he does know a few words and phrases in the language.
You can see Ronaldo speaking a bit of French in the video below:
As you can see, Ronaldo clearly doesn’t speak French fluently. In the video, his girlfriend is seen correcting him after he said a basic French phrase wrong.
Based on his career, there’s no reason why he would have ever learned French as he’s never played for a French team.
What Language Does Cristiano Ronaldo Speak To His Wife?
Cristiano Ronaldo has been dating his long-term partner, Georgina Rodriguez, for several years.
They even have several children together.
Georgina is Argentine-Spanish so her native language is Spanish. It appears that Ronaldo speaks Spanish to his long-term girlfriend.
The two filmed a reality show entitled ‘I am Georgina’ for Netflix which takes a look at their lives. In the show, they speak Spanish with each other the entire time.
You can see a few clips from the show in the video below:
Why Does Cristiano Ronaldo Speak So Many Languages?
It’s actually pretty common for footballers like Ronaldo to speak several different languages.
Major football teams always sign the best players in the world and these players often come from different countries.
It’s not uncommon for a football team to have players with 4, 5 or even more different native languages.
It’s customary for the players themselves to speak to each other in the language of the country they’re in (although this isn’t a rule).
For example, when Ronaldo moved to Spain to play for Real Madrid, he learned Spanish and when he moved to the UK to play for Manchester United, he learned English.
He then uses these languages to communicate with his teammates, coaches and managers.
They also come in useful for press conferences which usually take place after every match.
And Ronaldo isn’t the only football player who’s done this. Lionel Messi also speaks several languages as does top football manager Jose Mourinho.
It may surprise you that Cristiano Ronaldo speaks 4 languages. It surprised us too!
It’s great that Ronaldo has put in the effort to learn so many languages especially since he’s been playing football professionally since his teens.
Thanks for reading this post which answers the question ‘how many languages does Ronaldo speak?’.
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