French press officer tries “French only” to dodge Antoine Greizmann transfer questions, so Spanish reporter uses translation app

There are often plenty of back-and-forths between team or league PR staffers and journalists, and a Spanish reporter won one in clever style at a pre-World Cup press conference Tuesday.

A key story around the French team is about the club future of striker Antoine Greizmann, specifically if he’ll head to Barcelona this summer or remain at Athletico Madrid, and Spanish journalists were particularly eager to ask him about that at Tuesday’s presser. But the French press officer wanted the focus to be on the World Cup, so he dictated that questions could be asked only in French. That didn’t defeat one intrepid reporter, who asked his question to Greizmann in French through a translation app on his phone:

⚽ Quan el teu francès no és prou bo per fer una pregunta, i fas ús del traductor automàtic del mòbil: https://t.co/gNtVbl0zjb pic.twitter.com/a17NNeNGcc

— Esport3 (@esport3) June 12, 2018

Great stuff: France press officer says only questions in French to avoid Spanish media asking Griezmann about transfers. Spanish journalist uses google translate app to ask question, French press officer loses it…. https://t.co/3Ftj7li3ph

— Ed Malyon (@eaamalyon) June 12, 2018

For what it’s worth, Greizmann did eventually address the transfer speculation, only to say that he’d made his decision but wouldn’t reveal it yet:

https://twitter.com/brfootball/status/1006665529795506178

So the gambit worked out, at least somewhat. And the press officer looks pretty silly as a result.

[Ed Malyon on Twitter]