Mateo Kovacic speaks in Catalan at his Real Madrid presentation
Real Madrid’s new signing Mateo Kovacic greeted his new club in Catalan on Wednesday. Florentino Perez, Madrid’s president, was welcoming the Croatian to the Spanish capital in a ceremony at the Bernabeu when Kovacic took the microphone and said: “Bon dia a tots”. (Good day, everyone).
After saying these four words in Catalan — his first as a Madrid player — he spent the rest of the press conference talking in English, only speaking Castellano at the end of the questioning when he said the usual two words: “Hala Madrid.” Therefore, he spoke more Catalan than his native Croatian or Spanish.
It’s probably best, in fact, if the 21- year-old midfielder doesn’t speak for a little while now as some old quotes have also resurfaced. “No, I don’t cook and I never will,” he said to ABC a few years ago. “That’s a woman’s work. My job is to take money home and make life easier for my family.”
Kovacic signed for Los Blancos earlier this week from Inter Milan in a deal worth around 35 million euros. He becomes the second Croatian in Rafa Benitez’s squad, after Luka Modric, and the fifth Croatian to ever represent the club.
