To be on the ball - Italian Fabio Capello must learn English!

Created: 17/12/2007

Needless to say the English press is having a ball or even a field day (please chose your own pun) with the latest sporting headlines!
To quote the Sunday Times article (Dec 16) Ciao, Rooney - stick the ball on me ’ighbrow ’ead – “The 61 year old Capello is an impeccably dressed gourmet, aesthete and art collector, a solid family man who believes in hard work and discipline, has no time for big egos and pays no attention to what the media says. Welcome to the new England football manager. And you’re surprised he isn’t English?"

One might have thought that to turn the moribund England team into a World Cup winning side might be enough of a challenge for any man. But Capello, as the oldest man ever to take on the position has got to go back to school and learn English. The language advice comes from Sepp Blatter, the Fifa president who warned that Fabio Capello will need to brush up on his language skills if he is to get the best out of the England team when he embarks on his new career in international football in January.

Speaking at the end of a Fifa executive committee meeting in Tokyo yesterday, Blatter said "What is important for me is that when you have the national coach, whatever nationality he is, he should be able to converse and speak directly to the players and not through an interpreter. This is my principal answer for footballers and sportsmen"

Capello has already proved he has an aptitude for languages (he speaks fluent Spanish) that will enable him to come quickly up to speed. Liverpool’s Spanish manager, Rafael Benitez, has warned him to make it his priority if only to avoid missing the point of dressing room humour. “I used to confuse ‘win’ and ‘wine’,” he has admitted.

But is age a barrier to language learning? Andiamo's Sales & Marketing Manager, Linda Diggory insists that it isn't. "I went back to university in my forties to study French and Russian - admittedly it's often difficult juggling family commitments with study but I found that my ability to concentrate on work is much better now I am older. Learning languages is so rewarding as well - it keeps your memory sharp and it opens up the world to you as well. I am passionate about languages and wanting to communicate with people from other cultures. I believe that if Capello shares that passion - and all the signs are there that he does - he will take to the English language very quickly!" Linda adds however: "I would always stress that while verbal communication is very useful for most business people to enable them to socialise with their clients - when it comes to business communication, contracts, technical documents etc - professional translation and interpreting remains a must!"

Of course the 'beautiful game' - as Pelé named it - is a truly global sport and the more far-sighted English football clubs are responding to the desire for information from their international fans by supplying their latest club news in foreign languages. Since Andiamo! translated Liverpool F.C.'s new website into French, Italian, German, Spanish, Polish and Japanese this year - its hit rate has reached over one million a week from fans around the world. According to Stephen Done, Curator of the LFC Museum and Stadium Tour, "When you have supporters all over the globe, you make yourselves as approachable as possible and that included translating our website. Furthermore I really appreciated the fact that Project Director, Miranda Sambidge took the trouble to research all about Liverpool FC and worked with the translators to provide the results we wanted”.

Naturally if Capello wants help with professional interpreting and translation while he is getting to grips with the English language - the team at Andiamo are ready to take up the challenge! In the meantime we wish him all the best - and as one wit said on a sporting blog – “Let's face it Steve McClaren spoke perfect English - but it didn't seem to help at all!” Let’s hope Capello’s skills go beyond the ordinary - Andiamo Fabio!

If you would like sign up Andiamo's help for your translation and interpreting projects then go to the contact link on this website or call us on 08450 345677.

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