Jadon Sancho channels inner Joey Barton with German accent in post-match interview

Reuben Pinder

Joey Barton has some sympathy for Sancho

Picture the scene: you’re on holiday somewhere on the Costa del Sol, you’ve sat down for dinner. A friendly waiter approaches and asks if he can take your drinks order. Your dad, who thinks he’s retained more of his O-Level Spanish than he actually has (none, at all), sees this as the perfect opportunity to show that Brits get a bad wrap abroad, and that we’re actually very good at assimilating into foreign cultures. “Hola, hi,” he says. “Errrrrm, dos… pints? Pintas? Yeah, dos pintas y… coca cola? Cheers. Gracias!”

The waiter just about conceals his rage behind a smile. “Right away, sir,” he replies.

Your dad is then hit with the realisation that actually, he can’t speak Spanish, and so as a compromise, subconsciously slips into a mode of speaking that 99 per cent of Brits abroad adopt. It entails slow, clear enunciation of words, with a few more hand gestures thrown in to hammer home a message and some attempts at Hispanicising some words. The occasional rolled R. Unnecessarily adding ‘o’ to the end of words at random. The volume goes up by two notches as well.

Now, this cultural phenomenon is not confined to package holidays. No, far from it. British footballers who venture beyond Blighty have also been known to adopt a local accent in lieu of the local language to be better understood, Steve McClaren, during his spell at FC Twente, who he was trying to get into the Championsh League, is perhaps the most famous example.

Joey Barton too, while on loan at Marseille from QPR, adopted a Scouse/French hybrid accent that went down in history as one of the funniest, most surreal press conferences.

And now, the reason you’re here – Jadon Sancho is doing it as well.

Speaking after Borussia Dortmund’s 4-0 victory over local rivals Schalke, in which Sancho opened the scoring, the England international conducted his post-match interview in what I’m going to call Deutglish.

Just listen and enjoy.