Amazing how many Vietnamese Living Abroad Celebrated Euro 2020?

[ASEAN NOW News]

The Euro 2020 has been an incredibly successful and emotional football event, and it enabled people all over the world to forget the Covid pandemic for once and to enjoy some great live football.

 

Even some Vietnamese fans also left a mark in their own way, by waving their own flags in the stadiums.

In the end the Vietnam flag popped up at a few of the matches played at Euro 21 stadiums.

 

Several flags of Vietnam appeared on TV during the match between Spain and Sweden at Euro 2020 semi-finals, which surprised the football players and THE European fans.

 

Gazprom Arena Stadium actually had a capacity of 68134 people, however, to follow Covid-19 distancing rules, the stadium only allowed 50% full.

 

 Among the fans that cheered for the two football teams, there were a few from Vietnam.

 

Many European football fans were amazed why so many Vietnam’s national flags spreading around the stadium, and these special images went viral on Twitter and other social media sites.

 

One supporter commented online “I have no idea why there are so many Vietnam’s flags in the crowd of Euro 2020.

This shows that Vietnamese are big football fans. I’m not talking about a few fans who got their tickets and went to show off themselves to the world.”

 

Tai Nguyen (1990, Nghe An) attended Puskás Aréna stadium to watch the Euro’s match of Czech Republic vs Netherlands.

 

He and other 5 friends took their train from Czech Republic to Budapest (Hungary) in the early morning. Tai had brought the tickets for all of them a few days before the match.

 

According to Zing News, Tai, who is currently working and living at Budapest, said he did not intend to bring the Vietnam’s flag to the stadium, but borrowed one from a Vietnamese fan.

 

 

“During the match between Portugal and Hungary, I wore a number 9 shirt of former player Le Cong Vinh. What matters is that us Vietnamese football fans just wanted to share our joy and love for sports to the world,” Tai said.

Tai affirmed there were many Vietnamese football fans crowded the stadium at that day, but “only got a little screen time”.

 

Therefore, he was also surprised to see his image holding the national flag of his hometown at the Puskás Aréna stadium had received a lot of attention from football fans back home.

 

“I always loved football when I was young. Now my house is less than 1km from the stadium, and the tickets are also cheap. So, why not going and joining with other’s joy?”, he said with a laugh.

 

Vietnamese fans living in Russia “hunted” for Euro tickets

 

Despite Covid-19 vaccines, the EURO 2020 still brought a sense of excitement and happiness for those who were able to witness the games at the massive stadiums, wearing the brightest colours and cheering for the winners.

 

However, getting hold of tickets were very important if they wanted to participate in these activities.

 

 

Dang Thanh Nhan (1990), a PhD student at The The Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia and Dam Quynh Anh, who graduated at Saint Petersburg Electrotechnical University, with two other friends formed a group and bought tickets for Vietnamese football fans living in Russia to help them go see Euro 2020.

 

In order to be able to buy tickets at a fair price, and in case Euro’s official website ran out of tickets, the young group of friends had to search other social media sites such as Vkontakte, Telegram, or even Avito sales website to find tickets.

 

The Russians were impressed by the love of these Vietnamese fans for Euro and football, with them even waving their national flags at the St. Petersburg stadium, cheering for Russian team.

 

Vietnamese people celebrated Euro 2020 in Netherlands

 

In the early morning of 14 June, Netherlands met Ukraine at Amsterdam stadium, a few days before the match, Vietnamese families living in Netherlands had prepared for celebrating Euro 2020, creating a “Storm of orange colours” in every corner of the streets and hanging up “Hup Holland Hup” slogan at the front doors.

 

Pennants and banners were hung everywhere, on the roof down to make enormous orange nets.

 

 

“Football has been a passion of our family’, Mai Ngoc Tram, living in The Hague City, about 70km from Amsterdam) said every house were decorated in a bright orange shade of banners and flags, waiting for the game and cheering for Netherlands to win.

 

Not sure if any Vietnamese fans managed to buy those precious final tickets at Webley Stadium but if so, they must have been incredibly lucky.

 

At the end of the day it shows that football is truly a sport loved by people across the globe.

Roll on the World Cup in Qatar in 2022…...and that is a lot closer to HCMC than Europe.