When a footballer decides to venture outside their comfort zone into a league and country they have never been, it’s not only a transition on the pitch but off of it too. Emerson Royal has only played in Brazil and Spain, so it was a new venture when he decided to join Tottenham Hotspur this summer.
The north London-based club paid £25.8 million for Emerson to FC Barcelona as they revamped their backline. In an interview with Globo Esporte, the 22-year-old discussed various topics, one being the transition from living in Brazil and Spain for all of his life to living in England for the foreseeable future.
Emerson discussed the differences on the pitch, but there’s also a transition off the pitch. The first being he needs to get used to the English weather, which caught him off guard.
“The strangest thing, in the beginning, is the weather. It’s not that cold now, but you can see that it’s much colder here than in other countries I’ve been through and also the language, the language is a little complicated, I don’t speak English yet. But when you arrive, different language, complicated to get used to,” Emerson said.
“I will work on that, the language, and working to adapt as quickly as possible to the cold. But for the rest, food, at the club, which has players I’ve played with, like Lo Celso, has South American and Brazilian players, so for me, it’s more relaxed in this sense of adaptation.”
Furthermore, the Brazil international also stated that he’s working on his English as he adapts to his new life in England.
“English is a little more boring to learn. Spanish was different, a little more like Portuguese. You could get a bit of a sense of what people wanted to tell you. Not here; if you don’t know, it’s hard to understand because you have no idea what people are telling you. The first few days were very complicated because I didn’t understand anything at all,” Emerson said.
“Today I can understand a lot, I can understand a lot, I can communicate, not 100-percent, far from it, but now I can communicate more with people, I understand more things. Now I’m going to study more too; it’ll be easier. So I think that language is now a problem, a difficult one, but in a short time, I will take this out of the issue.”
Saying all the right things, lets see how he develops over the course of the season.