The former Liverpool star is set to return to Anfield with Real Madrid in the Champions League on Tuesday.
Trent Alexander-Arnold’s Spanish teacher has revealed exactly when she started teaching the Spanish right-back – and Liverpool fans won’t be happy. Alexander-Arnold, 27, has had a tough start to life at Real Madrid after his controversial transfer from his childhood club Liverpool in June.
Read: Loves Liverpool, but when £150 million in annual salary is put on the table.
Back at Anfield with perfect Spanish he started learning long before what Liverpool fans will like to hear!
After receiving criticism from a large proportion of Liverpool’s supporters, the right-back arrived at the Santiago Bernabéu ahead of the Club World Cup, where he played five games before Real were knocked out by Paris Saint-Germain in the semi-finals.
Since then, Trent has played four La Liga games for Los Blancos, but was forced off the pitch with a hamstring injury in his first Champions League game for Real against Marseille on October 16.
Nevertheless, the Liverpool Poodle could be fit enough to return to Merseyside when Madrid face Arne Slots Liverpool in the Champions League league phase on November 4.
With only five months since leaving Liverpool, Trent is likely to receive a mixed reception in his hometown if he plays.
With his struggles visible to everyone, one mistake Trent didn’t make – unlike some of his British counterparts, such as Gareth Bale, when they signed for Real – was failing to learn the language.
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When he was presented as a Real player on June 12, he impressed the supporters by speaking fluent Spanish during the presentation.
“Thank you very much to President Florentino Perez and Real Madrid for this opportunity,” he said in Spanish.
“Signing for a club like Real Madrid doesn’t happen every day. It’s a dream come true. I am very happy and proud to be here. I’m eager to show the club and the fans what I can do.”
With his ability to speak the language so fluently, it was pretty obvious that Trent had learned Spanish while still a Liverpool player, and the player confirmed this earlier this week on social media.
In a video posted online, he said: “I wanted to learn Spanish to communicate better with my teammates, my coach and all the Real Madrid fans.”
“To adapt better to the club and the people.”
“I really enjoy the classes because they’re focused on football: press conferences, interviews, and all the vocabulary I need to talk to my teammates.”
Meanwhile, Trent’s teacher, Sara Duque, has explained how she has been working with the Englishman for “five months”.
In a social media post, the teacher, who speaks Portuguese, Spanish, English, French, Italian and German, and works with several soccer players, wrote: “Five months. That was all there was to it, but it wasn’t easy.”
“When he stood on that stage in Madrid and spoke with calmness, clarity and heart, it was not about fluency. It was about respect, courage and a genuine desire to belong.”
