Barcelona's Jordi Alba chose the wrong Real Madrid player to pick on when he insulted Mateo Kovacic's language skills during the Clasico at the weekend.

In images reproduced on Movistar, the left-back is caught trash-talking the Croatia international. Among other things, he tells him to learn Spanish.

"You're an idiot, learn to speak Spanish, fool," Alba said. "Learn to speak first, you moron. Walk on, shut up, you simpleton."

However, despite only being at Madrid for 18 months, Kovacic has already displayed a more than passable level of the local language -- especially when you consider how long it takes some players to pick up the native tongue.

In fact, as well as Spanish, he also speaks Italian from his time in Italy with Inter Milan. A video on Marca's website also reveals he's not bad at English and German, either.

Then there's his native Croatian, while he even began his Real Madrid presentation last summer by speaking in Catalan -- something which the press in Catalonia certainly enjoyed.

Here is @MateoKova16 (22) speaking fluently in 5 different languages (Croatian, German, English, Italian & Spanish).



Your turn @JordiAlba. pic.twitter.com/2NA0IQwjvF - CroSports (@CroSports_) December 6, 2016

Alba may want to think twice about criticising Kovacic when the two next meet on the pitch.

Samuel Marsden covers Barcelona for ESPN FC. Follow him on Twitter @SamuelMarsden.