Joey Barton Reveals Truth Behind Terrible French Accent From Infamous Marseille Press Briefing

Joey Barton has explained the excruciating moment behind the terrible faux-French accent he put on during that infamous press conference during his Marseille days.

The centre midfielder, who is currently serving an 18-month football ban for breaking FA rules over gambling, told talkSPORT about the hilarious incident from the season he spent on loan at the Ligue 1 club during the 2012/13 campaign.

Barton was unceremoniously mocked on social media for the surreal accent he employed during a media briefing five years ago, and he told Alan Brazil on his breakfast show just what was going through his mind at the exact moment he decided to do a 'Steve McClaren'.

He revealed: "I thought I was making perfect sense but that clearly wasn't the case! You've got to laugh, haven't you?

"I got called to a press conference and they used to put you in this isolated little building and it sits around 50 people.

"Before I go on air, the translator whose French says to me 'Look, speak as slowly as possible. Don't speak in your accent because it's difficult for me to interpret scouse to English and then to French'.

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"There's no English journalists in there. The only two English people in there are my mate and my brother, Drew, who are sat at the back of the room.

"I started going slowly and nobody's laughing, everybody's nodding, my translator is buzzing off the pace I'm setting, he ain't going 'slow down', so I'm like 'I'm nailing this. I'm nailing it.'

"I've got no clue I'm speaking like an absolute imbecile at this stage. I start catching myself, you know, doing hand signals, and being very Gallic with my hands, and I've looked up to see my brother and my mate, and they're gone. 

"They had tears [rolling down their face]! But everybody else in the room was straight-faced looking back at me. 

"So, bear in mind I must be 15 minutes in here, I've answered a load of questions, it's being recorded, and I've had that 'Oh no. I've just done a Steve McClaren'. I had the slow realisation of that, and I said before going out my biggest fear was doing a McClaren interview!"

Barton was banned from playing football in April after he admitted to 1,260 bets on matches over the past decade.