Eldest daughter did a project on the Black Country accent at uni. Apparently, it is the closest accent to old English with some words and phrases carried through.
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So was EugĆØne Langenove our first ever foreign player? Seems likely but would be interesting if there was someone else before him.
Iād read something similar. It was said that it was the language that Shakespeare would have used in his plays.
Being a bit pedantic here but itās the Black Country dialect (i.e. the words we use) that is apparently the closest to Anglo Saxon/old English out of all current regional dialects, while the accent (the way we speak - sorry, spake the words) is supposedly the closest to how Shakespeare would have spoken (as @Fish points out), although the rest of the Elizabethan court may have sounded more west country.
Anyway, weāre unique - and hereās something to help foreigners get their heads (and ears) around what weāre saying:
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According to my elder sister we have some huguenots ancestors on my maternal grandfathers side of the family
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We had a history teacher who was well blessed in the nasal department. Oh the fun we had as we pronounced Huguenots as āhuge noseā.
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My mate tells a tale of a group of Black Country lads from our local pub at the time on a trip to Paris.
They were sat in a crowded bar, when a french bloke approached them to get past and said āmerciā.
One of the lads got up and offered him the chair, as the bemused french bloke walked past them.
The lad said he thought he had said āmar seatā.
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No matter where i go all over this country and over the water people know our accent a mile off.
Always one tho who thinks we are brummies till a little information shows them the light of there error
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Itās the same when you ask a Canadian if heās a Yank , or ask a Mackem if they are a Geordie ā¦
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If you like Jonny Cole ā¦
And being a Wednesburyite myself ā¦
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Or like me the other week asking a New Zealander if she saw from South Africa 
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Wowā¦just wow! Saffers sound like Dutch people. Kiwis definitely donāt. They donāt sound like Aussies either!
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Many years ago I worked in hotel that had a coachload in from Sunderland. All week long, they insisted the werenāt Geordies. A while later ,I had a look in the visitors book. Where it said " nationality " every one of them had written," Geordie."
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Brilliant 
Southern hemispherians - they all look and sound the same!
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Itās all foreign to me mate 
There are two Mackems who work with me. I joked initially to one of them that he was, like all Geordies, really a Scot.
He reacted so funnily that I christened him Geordie McMackem - and the name has stuck to this day.
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https://www.blackcountrytshirts.com/product-category/designs/black-country/
A range of Black Country items on sale here.
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Wasnāt there a thing a while ago about the use of the chains logo ? something to do with the fact that they were made here in the black country for use on slaves? They forget that they were also used on ships and other good things.