"Language is a double-edged sword"
Nigerian saying, from the Yoruba tribe
A prejudice that many share is that professional soccer players are dumb. That they will earn a lot of money and that they will be phenomenal with the ball, but if we measure their intelligence according to conventional parameters they fall very short.
Will it be true? Or is it filthy envy? Who knows?
What we do know is that there are two players, stars of the two best teams in the Premier League, who refute the theory. Manuel Akanji, a Swiss from Manchester City, and Bukayo Saka, an Englishman from Arsenal, are geniuses, the first in mathematics, the second in the written word.
Akanji, 27, arrived from Borussia Dortmund in September and has already established himself as a starter in City's defense, placing himself above undisputed players in their national teams such as Spain's Aymeric Laporte and Portugal's Rúben Dias, according to his coach's criteria. coach, Pep Guardiola.
It's hard to avoid the conclusion that Akanji's razor-sharp positional sense and neat ball distribution have something to do with his superior intelligence. They say that there has not been any newcomer to City who has more easily assimilated the complex geometry lessons that Guardiola imposes on his players.
What does Akanji have? Well, to begin with, he is fluent in the three Swiss official languages – French, Italian and German – and speaks, I know, almost perfect English. But that is not the issue. The thing is that when he was studying at school he won national math competitions. Five years ago, when he played for Borussia, he was put to the test on a television show.
The first question, what is 24 multiplied by 75? He instantly gave the correct answer: 1,800. “Too easy,” Akanji said. "Other". 33 for 97?, they asked him. 3,201, he answered correctly, without thinking for half a second.
A couple of months ago the experiment was repeated on English television. 23 for 42? 966, correct. 93 for 60? 5,580, correct. And so, one after another, each time a more difficult multiplication and each time Akanji responded with the speed of a calculator.
Saka, a 21-year-old Londoner, got spectacular grades at school. In examinations held nationally in England she came out in the top five per cent. Her specialty is spelling, a challenge infinitely more complicated in English than in Spanish, and much more difficult than in Catalan. The relationship between the written word and the phonetic word in Spanish is of an admirable logical simplicity. In English it is pure anarchy. You have to memorize – there is no other choice – thousands of words to know how to write them.
Saka, the best attacking player on the England team and brilliant for Arsenal all this season, seems to know them all. During the World Cup in Qatar, his habit of testing his teammates was revealed. The poor Jack Grealish, Marcus Rashford and Declan Rice were photographed, as demonstrated in videos that Saka uploaded to social networks. Words like "rhythm", "aesthetic" or "embarrassed", which for Saka are easy to spell, outperformed the three English cracks.
They say that now Saka has gotten down to work to improve the educational level of his clubmates. On the bus heading to a game, she has the habit of organizing competitions whose purpose is to force Arsenal players to train their knowledge of the English language. Suddenly they are almost as interested in avoiding making a fool of themselves in their responses to Professor Saka as they are when they have the ball at their feet during a game.
What is the secret of Bukayo Saka and Manuel Akanji, geniuses on and off the pitch? Demanding families at all levels, it is assumed, but perhaps also possessing privileged genes. The two smartest players in the Premier have their roots in Nigeria, specifically in the Yoruba tribe. The fact that I mention it has nothing to do at all – nothing, I assure you – with the fact that when I took a genetic DNA test a few years ago it was found that I also have Yoruba ancestors. But I admit that it will never occur to me again that all footballers are stupid and that, well, I do feel a bit of pride.
