VivirLatino

If the politicians behind the story I am about to cite read this post, I’ll be crucified by writing a headline which begins “In Spain…” To some people in the Catalunya region, their territory is not Spain. For some real life manifestations of this sentiment, read on. It’s eerily similar to our own “You’re in the U.S., speak the language!” issue, the difference being the language that a couple of luminaries in Barcelona are being asked to speak is not Spanish.

Eto’o, the Cameroon-born star of Barcelona’s soccer team — arguably the most famous soccer team in the world — El Barça, has made a grave mistake that may cost him some fans in Spain’s Catalunya region. He spoke Spanish.

During a press conference, the player was spoken to by a journalist in Catalan, one of the two official languages of Catalunya, and when he didn’t understand the question, asked the reporter to repeat the query in Spanish. This caused a polemic among local politicians who deemed the request “disrespectful” and among team officials, who are encouraging the player to “learn the language” of Barça’s home base.

One politician, Artur Mas, is even demanding that Eto’o apologize for his error. The debate was even hashed out in the Catalan parliament today.

The poor guy doesn’t seem to see what the big deal is, and has said he didn’t understand the question and has nothing but the utmost respect for Catalunya and the Catalan people:

Eto’o is defending himself saying he didn’t hear the question and that “The reporter was behind me, there was a lot of noise and it was almost impossible to hear. That’s why I asked that she speak to me in Spanish.”

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