What language do Switzerland national team players speak to each other? How Swiss are communicating at Euro 2024

Switzerland have put in a string of impressive performances at Euro 2024, somewhat at odds with their quarterfinal opponents England.

With the arguable exception of Spain, no team has looked more like a well-honed club side than Murat Yakin’s men. They were a Niclas Fullkrug equaliser away from topping Group A at Germany’s expense.

No qualms, this team of intelligent industry and a title-winning spine dispatched Italy, 2-0, with a display of superiority that made a mockery of the Azzurri’s status as reigning champions.

Perhaps Germany and Italy were partly undermined by Switzerland probably knowing exactly what they were saying to each other at all times.

On the other hand, how does this diverse team from a land of multiple languages communicate with one another?

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Switzerland has thrived as a nation welcoming migrants from around the world, as evidenced by the Balkan and African heritage in Yakin’s squad.

However, even those players whose families have been rooted in central Europe for generations are most likely to speak several languages.

What language is mostly spoken in Switzerland?

The vast majority of people in Switzerland count German or French, or dialects of those, as their main language.

According to the Swiss Federal Statistical Office , in 2022 61.8 percent of the population considered themselves German speakers, with 22.8 percent speaking French.

Italian speakers account for a smaller proportion (7.8 percent), with 23.4 percent responding “other” – a category taking in several non-national languages, with English, Portuguese and Albanian the most common.

The regional splits for the main language largely accord with Swiss geography. French is predominantly spoken in the west, where the country shares a border with France. German dominates in the central regions, including along the northern border with Germany. Italian is similarly most common in areas toward the southern border with Italy.

Romansh, a Gallo-Romance language, remains in the country but only 0.5 percent of the population speaks it as a primary language.

Switzerland also boasts numerous regional dialects. Swiss German, the most commonly spoken language in workplaces, is a little different to standard German, which is usually the favoured written form. What’s more, there are distinctions between dialectal forms of Swiss German from one region to another – a remarkable fact for a nation less than half the size of South Carolina.

What language does the Swiss football team speak?

Yakin’s band of multilinguists can obviously be canny on the field and it wouldn’t be a surprise to hear Granit Xhaka and Xherdan Shaqiri swapping tactical tips between themselves in Albanian.

However, it feels safe to assume that German will be the primary method of communication. Of Yakin’s 26-man squad, 17 were born in majority German-speaking parts of Switzerland.

Those who weren’t — Shaqiri, Yann Sommer, Yvon Mvogo, Denis Zakaria, Vincent Sierro, Michel Aebischer, Breel Embolo, Dan Ndoye and Zeki Amdouni — have all spent significant amounts of time at German clubs, clubs based in German-speaking Switzerland or both.

So, all that stands between England and progress in a major knockout competition is a team full of guys speaking German. That normally works out well.