2 min readJul 11, 2026 12:31 PM IST
A loss is a loss is any language, but Romelu Lukaku faced questions elegantly on the 2-1 loss to Spain in 4 different languages.
The Belgian baritone answered questions in Spanish, English, Flemish and French. He fluently speaks 8 languages, having learnt Italian only after joining Inter Milan in 2019.
ESPNmx reported he spoke Flemish (Dutch-Belgian), French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Lingala and Swahili. The Congolese origin super forward of Belgium comes from a country where being bilingual is common, and almost all people speak 3-4 languages given the geography. He told Birmingham Mail he understood German too.
“My parents raised me in French and many Anderlecht players spoke it too,” he said after joining West Brom in 2012. It helped him communicate with Claudio Yacob who didn’t speak much English. He would add he appreciated that Black Country in England had a different dialect even as he understood Steve Clarke’s Scottish. He focussed on Spanish at school, telling BM, “My Spanish was always good and we had Brazilian guys at Anderlecht so I picked Portuguese. Football is a big part of my life but education was always important to me.”
Duolingo says he grew up using Flemish (it’s only a dialect, he clarified to Birmingham Mail), Dutch and French which was common, while also learning Bantu language Lingala due to his parents. English and Italian happened due to playing in those countries. “Learning a team’s language helps me play my best soccer,” he said.
Speaking to Sofoot, he had said, “I went to school in Dutch, but at home my mother speaks Lingala and my father French. I spoke English well before arriving in England mainly thanks to American rap,”
His teammate Kevin de Bruyne speaks Dutch, French, English and German.
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Lukaku’s heritage sees him speak Swahili, NBC Philadelphia reported.
They might’ve lost their Friday knockouts as Youri Tielemans suffered injury, but Lukaku would continue patiently answering all questions to the defeated.
Coincidentally, it wasn’t a great day for sporting polyglots, as Novak Djokovic, who speaks 12 languages, also lost at Wimbledon to dual-lingual Jannik Sinner.
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