Lionel Messi has been giving his Inter Miami teammates tactical tips in English on the pitch – and his new teammate Julian Gressel hilariously revealed that the Argentine star is proud of how quickly he is learning the language.
Messi has never spoken English in public and gives interviews in Spanish, but since arriving in the United States last July he has started learning the language.
Gressel, who joined Miami on a free transfer from Major League Soccer in the offseason, talked about Messi as a teammate on his Player Manager podcast and it appears they have struck up a quick friendship.
“Between me and Leo, we’ve had this running joke a little bit since the first few days,” said Gressel, who played fullback for Miami.
‘There was a moment in Saudi Arabia, I forget which match it was, but maybe the first match, against Al Hilal, and he came up to me and spoke to me in English. It was the first time he spoke to me in English.
Lionel Messi has started giving tactical instructions to his Inter Miami teammates in English
His new Miami teammate Julian Gressel made the revelation during a podcast appearance
Gressel also paid tribute to the influence Sergio Busquets has on the Miami team
“During the game he covers his mouth because there are always a billion cameras on him. He covers his mouth and says, ‘now we change. You stay and Jordi (Alba) runs, Jordi goes further back.’ I just thought, ‘Yeah, okay, sounds good!’.
‘The funny thing was that he said: ‘English, quite good, isn’t it?’. I was like ‘yeah, very good! I understood everything!’.
Gressel also revealed how much he has learned from playing alongside Sergio Busquets since joining the club in January.
“When I play next to Busi, there are times when he ends up between the centre-backs and I come in as a six and we pay each other off,” Gressel said.
“Since I came into the club he’s always giving me pointers, it’s incredible. He always gives me something that I can handle, that can make me better. He has so much knowledge of the game.
‘We always speak English, he can get a point across and have conversations. We don’t just talk about football, we talk about family, but also about the competition. Columbus – the team I played for before – he’s super interested in MLS, which is pretty cool to see.”
Miami have won one of their first two Major League Soccer games this season and drawn one, with Messi scoring the 90th-minute equalizer against Los Angeles Galaxy last Sunday.
Messi and his team return to action on Saturday against Florida rivals Orlando in what is the Argentine World Cup winner’s first full season in MLS.
His coach, Tata Martino, said before the game that he wants Miami to be less reliant on Messi than what he has seen in his first two games.
“I have discussed some things with him (about his workload) and what concerns me most is the day-to-day affairs and how he recovers game after game,” Martino said of his star player.
“I feel like we relied on him too much in the first two games and he got quite tired in both games.”