Published on 6/15/2026
Dutch star Frenkie de Jong attended a press conference yesterday, Saturday, on the eve of the Netherlands-Japan confrontation, where he was surprised by a regulatory rule that prevented him from responding in Spanish to one of the journalists’ questions.
The question, which was asked in Spanish about how he felt as one of the captains of the Dutch national team, was met with an intervention from the media official, who stressed the need for all questions to be in English, before explaining that this rule was mandatory due to the translation arrangements adopted at FIFA conferences.
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De Jong, who lives in Barcelona and speaks good Spanish, expressed his understanding of the matter and confirmed that he did not mind adhering to the regulatory instructions.
This incident comes in a context similar to what happened recently with Moroccan Achraf Hakimi and Brazilian Vinicius Junior, where they were asked during conferences related to their matches to answer in English instead of Spanish, despite some questions being asked in this language.
The three players are fluent in the Spanish language by virtue of their professional career or upbringing, as Hakimi was born in Madrid, Vinicius has a long experience with Real Madrid, while De Jong plays in Barcelona.
The organizing authorities explained that adopting the English language aims to facilitate the translation process during press conferences, noting that there are translators for specific languages only according to an approved system.
According to organizational data, FIFA uses only three languages in press conferences: English, in addition to the languages of the two teams involved in each match, which explains why it is prohibited to use other languages such as Spanish in some cases.
