spanish & italian footballers - which language?

Alessandro   Tue Jun 24, 2008 7:43 am GMT
"Succhiermi il pene" does not exist in Italian.

Italian and Spanish are different. Italian is more similar to Franch and Catalan than to Spanish and Spanish is more similar to Portuguese than to Italian. Some Italian players speak "Espaniol" because they played in Real Madrid or Barcelona (Cassano, Panucci, Cannavaro, Zambrotta, ...)
Guest   Tue Jun 24, 2008 8:49 am GMT
Have any of the Spaniards played for Italian clubs?
Guest   Tue Jun 24, 2008 1:04 pm GMT
No.
Tuco   Sat Jun 28, 2008 8:19 am GMT
They spoke Spanish. Italian is too difficoult for Spanish football players.
Guest   Sat Jun 28, 2008 8:53 am GMT
Маybe so, but English is definitely too "difficoult" for you.
Guest   Sat Jun 28, 2008 9:41 am GMT
"Remember Materazzi insulting Zidane, what is in French or italian? We don't know but those bothfootballers were actually knowing the language of the other."

Though being of Algerian origin Zidane grew up in Marseilles, a town which is culturally as much Italian as French, and he has been playing for seven years in the famous Juventus club of Turin. He married a woman of Italian origin. They gave their sons names that sounds neither Arabic nor French : Enzo, Marco, Theo, Elias.

Zidane is absolutely fluent in Italian and had no problem understanding what Materazzi said to him (probably some ironic comment about his wife's or mother's occupation, you can bet).
Guest   Sat Jun 28, 2008 9:54 am GMT
Marseilles Italian? hahahahaha
Guest   Sat Jun 28, 2008 9:56 am GMT
"difficoult" is correct in London
Guest   Sat Jun 28, 2008 10:02 am GMT
"Though being of Algerian origin Zidane grew up in Marseilles, a town which is culturally as much Italian as French"

You can say Nice, Corse or Savoy as Italians, but Marseilles absolutely not.
The French anthem is "La Marseillaise".
Guest   Sat Jun 28, 2008 1:48 pm GMT
I read in Wikipedia that at one time, Italian migrants represented 40% of Marseille population.
Guest   Sat Jun 28, 2008 4:29 pm GMT
Italians in Marseille are in part autochthonous. There are a lot of Italian surnames (25%). But now muslims from North Africa are more (40%).
Guest   Sat Jun 28, 2008 9:59 pm GMT
"You can say Nice, Corse or Savoy as Italians,"

WTF? Corsica is indeed closely related to Italy, but Savoy and Nice have never been Italian, are foreign to the Italian culture and have nothing to do with Italy.

"The French anthem is "La Marseillaise"."

The Marseillaise was first composed and sung in Alsace, on request of Strasburger Mayor baron De Dietrich, under the original title "War Song for the Rhine Army". It was first revealed to the Parisian public by volunteers from Marseilles. It became an instant success and was therefore dubbed the Marseillaise.

Mr De Dietrich urged composer Rouget de Lisle to write that song ASAP to answer Austria's declaration of war to France. Ironically, the composer took heavily inspiration from a Mozart concerto... (a case of blatant plagiarism)
Giulio   Sun Jun 29, 2008 6:50 am GMT
Well, Savoy and Nice were Italian. They were given to France by the King of Piedmont in change of France's support in the war for Italian independence against the Austrians (Treaty of Plombières). Garibaldi, the Italian national hero, was born in Nizza (Nice in French) and when the king decided to give up his town to the French he said: "I thank you the king for having made me a stranger in my country." He was so heroic that he kept fighting for Italy even though he knew that his home town would have been given to France at the end of the war.
About Savoy: until 1946 Italy was a monarchy. The royal family's surname was "Savoia" (Savoy in Italian). However, Savoy was a French-speaking region while Nice and Corsica were both Italian speaking communities.
I am Italian and I can understand quite well Corsican language for example.