Lionel Messi is still one of the most competitive people on the planet, even at 38. When Inter Miami opened the 2026 MLS season, over 75,000 fans packed the LA Memorial Coliseum to watch him play. That was the second-largest crowd in MLS history, which tells you everything about his pulling power. Miami lost 3-0 to LAFC, and Messi was not happy about it at all.
After the final whistle, a video went viral showing Messi storming down a stadium corridor without his shirt. The anger was real but there was no actual incident.
Off the pitch, though, Messi let people know of another frustration as he made a confession on a recent Argentine podcast.
He appeared on Miro de Atras, hosted by goalkeeper Nahuel Guzmán, and opened up about one of his biggest regrets. “Not having learned English as a kid,” he said. “I had the time to study at least English and I didn’t do it, and I regret it a lot.”
He went on to say that he found himself around incredible personalities throughout his career. He could have had real conversations with them but instead he felt, in his own words, “kind of ignorant.”
That is a genuinely striking thing for the greatest footballer of all time to admit. Think about the rooms this man has been in. Ballon d’Or ceremonies, World Cup finals, global events packed with celebrities and world leaders. Every time, he had to wait for a translator while conversations happened around him.
So what languages does Messi actually speak?
The real answer is two, and both of them fluently. Spanish is his first language, spoken with a thick Argentine accent that has never gone away despite decades abroad.
He also speaks Catalan fluently, which he picked up naturally after moving to Barcelona as a 13-year-old. He reportedly used Catalan with teammates during training so opposing players could not understand tactical discussions. His kids grew up speaking both languages. The Catalan thing is actually important because it proves Messi is perfectly capable of learning a new language when the environment is right.
There are some signs he is slowly picking up English in Miami. A teammate, Julian Gressel, said Messi gave him tactical instructions in English during a preseason game. Cameras also appeared to catch him speaking English on the pitch during the 2025 MLS Cup Final. He is getting there, just very late in the game.
Can Messi actually become fluent in English at 38?
Scientists say yes, absolutely. A major 2018 study from MIT and Harvard looked at nearly 700,000 people and found that meaningful language learning is possible well beyond childhood. Researchers at the Basque Centre on Brain and Language confirmed that the adult brain stays flexible enough to learn new languages at any age. Getting the accent perfect becomes harder, but having real conversations is completely doable. Spanish and English also share around 30 to 40 percent of their vocabulary through Latin roots, so Messi already has a massive head start without even knowing it.
Now for the obvious question. Ronaldo speaks four languages fluently. Portuguese is his first language, but he also speaks English, Spanish, and Italian, all learned at the clubs he moved to. Every time Ronaldo joined a new team, he committed to learning the local language as part of settling in.
So is Messi just lazy by comparison?
Honestly, it is more complicated than that. Ronaldo had no choice but to adapt. Moving to Manchester United at 18 without speaking English would have been genuinely isolating. Real Madrid required Spanish. Juventus pushed him toward Italian. The environments forced him to grow linguistically whether he wanted to or not.
Messi never faced that pressure. Barcelona was Spanish-speaking already. PSG had enough South American players that Spanish was always available in the dressing room. Miami’s Latin American community means he can still live his entire daily life in Spanish today. The world simply never made him learn, because his genius meant people always adjusted for him instead.
There is also a personality angle worth considering here. Messi is famously shy and introverted in a way that Ronaldo is not. Making grammatical mistakes in front of people, especially famous people he admires, would probably feel more painful for someone like Messi than for someone with Ronaldo’s natural confidence and showmanship.
So it was not really laziness. It was a career that never forced the issue, combined with a personality that made the risk feel bigger than the reward. He admits it himself, which is the whole point. He had the time, he did not use it, and now he wishes he had.
The good news is that he is actually doing something about it now, even if it is slow. He is picking up English on the training ground in Miami, one tactical phrase at a time. He is 38, not dead, and the science says it is genuinely not too late.
He spent decades making the world watch in silence. Maybe now, finally, the world gets to hear him back.
