126

News

Denmark and Peru in special love affair ahead of World Cup clash

Christian Wenande
May 31st, 2018


This article is more than 6 years old.

An exchange of emotional videos shows what football is all about

Even Eriksen’s questionable Spanish skills can’t dilute the inspiring message (photo: DBU)

Football is a brotherhood laced with conflicting emotion: passion and pain, jubilation and tears. Indeed, the initiated know that the glorious game plays on many tangents in the symphony of the soul.

Now, Denmark and Peru have reached an unprecedented emotional crescendo that really lays bare what the game is all about.

Just a few days after the Peruvian football association sent a special greeting to its upcoming Danish opponents in an emotional video that hailed Peru’s long-awaited return to the World Cup, the Danes have responded in kind.

READ MORE: Petition calls for FIFA to postpone World Cup for injured Nicklas Bendtner

Misty eyed message
Yesterday the national football association DBU put up a video with Christian Eriksen and other Danish legends parlaying a special message to Peru – including a tear-inducing performance by the DR girls’ choir (see below).

“Dear Peru, thank you for your greeting. It’s an honour for Denmark to be the first team to meet you after many years away from the World Cup. Here in Denmark we have also tried missing out and we know how much it means to be back,” the players said.

“We look forward to celebrating football with you at the World Cup in Russia. As thanks for your lovely message, we’ve made a song for you. A song about a special country. A beautiful country.”

Song for Peru
Following the brief introduction by Eriksen and a few other current and former players, the choir takes over and sings the Danish national anthem with a Peruvian twist – the words have been changed to an ode to the South American country’s stunning beauty and Incan legacy, as well as to the game on June 16, Peru’s first World Cup game since 1982.

Judging by the responses on the Peruvian football association’s Facebook page, the Danish message has struck a chord and the whole exchange has been a good fan warmup before the big game in a few weeks’ time.

Check out the stirring video below, and have your handkerchief/those aren’t tears excuses at the ready.


Share

Most popular

Subscribe to our newsletter

Sign up to receive The Daily Post

















Latest Podcast

A survey carried out by Megafon for TV2 has found that 71 percent of parents have handed over children to daycare in spite of them being sick.

Moreover, 21 percent of those surveyed admitted to medicating their kids with paracetamol, such as Panodil, before sending them to school.

The FOLA parents’ organisation is shocked by the findings.

“I think it is absolutely crazy. It simply cannot be that a child goes to school sick and plays with lots of other children. Then we are faced with the fact that they will infect the whole institution,” said FOLA chair Signe Nielsen.

Pill pushers
At the Børnehuset daycare institution in Silkeborg a meeting was called where parents were implored not to bring their sick children to school.

At Børnehuset there are fears that parents prefer to pack their kids off with a pill without informing teachers.

“We occasionally have children who that they have had a pill for breakfast,” said headteacher Susanne Bødker. “You might think that it is a Panodil more than a vitamin pill, if it is a child who has just been sick, for example.”

Parents sick and tired
Parents, when confronted, often cite pressure at work as a reason for not being able to stay at home with their children.

Many declare that they simply cannot take another day off, as they are afraid of being fired.

Allan Randrup Thomsen, a professor of virology at KU, has heavily criticised the parents’ actions, describing the current situation as a “vicious circle”.

“It promotes the spread of viruses, and it adds momentum to a cycle where parents are pressured by high levels of sick-leave. If they then choose to send the children to daycare while they are still recovering, they keep the epidemic going in daycares, and this in turn puts a greater burden on the parents.”