It took 32 years for the Scotland national team to be able to play a match away from home in the European Championship. Therefore, the promise of their fans is to make themselves heard like never before in their history and become the most significant supporters in the upcoming edition of the UEFA’s premier national team tournament, which will start this Friday.
PUBLICIDAD
The main protagonists in the prelude to the start of the international tournament are undoubtedly the Tartan Army, a group of fans that first made themselves known at the 1998 World Cup in France, and now according to the website of the Daily Mail, there are already 100,000 of them in Germany, coming not only from Scotland, as Scottish fans living in other regions of the world such as Australia, China, and Canada have also been reported to be attending.
PUBLICIDAD
Since the beginning of the week, cities like Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, and Gelsenkirchen have reported crowded hotels and bars, however, so far no serious problems or incidents have been reported.
Scotland played in Euro 2020 (but due to the pandemic it was held in 2021), but this tournament did not have a fixed venue and the three matches were played in Glasgow and London.
Passion with a South American twist and a Scottish accent
The United Kingdom, in addition to being one of the pioneers of football, has also been characterized by each of its teams having a loyal and noisy fan base, a culture that South America has adopted perfectly, especially when it comes to excessive enthusiasm.
On this occasion, it was the Tartan Army who, through a classic football song, adopted a characteristic from South America, more precisely from Argentina, by translating into English the song "La Mano de Dios" dedicated originally to Diego Armando Maradona, in remembrance of that controversial goal against England in the 1986 World Cup in Mexico.
The new song was performed by the musician, Nick Morgan, a version that quickly spread among the Tartan Army, because in addition to its catchy rhythm, the lyrics highlight figures of Scottish football such as John McGinn from Aston Villa, Andrew Robertson from Liverpool, and coach Steve Clarke.
The Scots have been rivals of England, so more than one adopted Maradona as a hero after the mentioned Hand of God and his memorable goal, considered by FIFA as the best of all time in World Cups, which completely dashed the chances of the team led at the time by Sir Robert Robson to reach the semifinals.