Joe Cole Accidentally Called Barcelona's Academy 'The Masala' Live On-Air

Joe Cole accidentally referred to Barcelona's legendary 'La Masia' academy as 'the masala' in an unfortunate slip of the tongue.

Barcelona were thumped 4-1 by Paris Saint-Germain in their Champions League last 16 clash on Tuesday evening.

Cole provided punditry for the game on BT Sport and discussed the Blaugrana's young players. However, he must've had curry on the mind.

The former Chelsea man stated: "I'm interested in watching the younger players tonight. The Pedris, the [Sergino] Dests, the next generation of the... masala, the academy there."

Pedri and Dest were both summer arrivals from Las Palmas and Ajax respectively and didn't progress through Barca's academy.

Despite that, the clear talking point was Cole's complete butchering of 'La Masia' and fans were quick to react.

A Kylian Mbappe hat-trick and Moise Kean header cancelled out Lionel Messi's penalty, meaning Ronald Koeman's side have it all to do in the second leg.

Mbappe ran the show and Cole believes he has now overtaken Messi as the world's best player.

He explained: "[Mbappe] is the best player in the world, at the moment.

"The influence he has on his team, the way he can just run away from players.

PA

PA

"His link-up play, his work-rate off the ball... he is the alpha dog in football at the moment.

"The top player in my opinion - maybe Ronaldo still. But as young players go, if you want to build a team, go and get Kylian Mbappe."

Topics: Football News, Paris Saint-Germain, Football, Barcelona, PSG

Daniel Marland

Daniel is a journalist for SPORTbible and he has previous experience with Manchester United. He has spoken to some of the biggest names in sport including Rio Ferdinand, Peter Crouch, WWE COO Triple H and WWE legend The Undertaker. May or may not do a decent impression of Jamie Carragher.

@DanMarland_