Last night while watching the game between England and Iceland a friend of mine commented that if England loss it would impact stock prices and then shouted #Brexit! That in it self was a bit funny but made me think that Iceland’s success at the UEFA EURO 2016 must have world wide consequences, maybe not on stock prices, but more on the way that we view football as a sport (and for that matter anything we want to be good at).
If a nation of 330.000 people can do this, then what is to stop even smaller nations, like our friends and neighbors the Faeroe Islands to do something similar? In a recent article writer Hallgrímur Helgason wrote “The Magic Mix: Icelandic heart & Swedish brain” about how Lars Lagerbäck had taken the Icelandic team to new heights or as Helgason phrased it.
“Kaos gone Lars” or “Larsified lava”
Besides the must read article by Helgason, and besides foreign news papers and alike writing their support in Icelandic, others write appraisals about the country and its people, the way Icelanders life their lives and how the country has shaped them – Basically what we are made of. As an Icelander, I am truly proud of my country and even though I am not a big fan of football I am a truly proud of being Icelandic, I am truly proud of my language, culture and in general the fearless attitude we apply to what we do.
But I am also thankful and humble for the recognition we are getting, because of that I want to say thank you, thank you VG for writing “Gangi Þér vel, Ísland!” on the front page of your paper, thank you Edward Hancox for writing the article you wrote on the Express.co.uk, thank you
Thank you world for supporting Iceland, the underdogs of the tournament, thank you for being positive and thank you for focusing on what matters (you can decide what you think that is, I know what I am thinking about).
Yesterday my pride being from Iceland went up even more (did not think that was possible) and even more important my pride of being a human being also went up.
Next stop Paris!