Eriksen incident showed how football can unify the world: Jhingan

Denmark midfielder Christian Eriksen collapsed midway during the European Championship match before he was subsequently resuscitated by the medical team.

People leave well wishes at a graffiti for Danish player Christian Eriksen on a wall at the fanzone in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The Christian Eriksen incident has shown football’s great ability to unify the world, feels the top Indian defender Sandesh Jhingan.

“The Christian Eriksen incident also showed how football promotes solidarity. Not many sports in the world have this power and vitality to bring the world together," said Jhingan about the Denmark midfielder, who collapsed during the European Football Championship match against Finland and was subsequently resuscitated by the medical team.

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"That was evident when the Finland fans were chanting Christian and the Denmark fans saying Eriksen. The whole world instantly came in support and prayed for his recovery. That is how football brings the world together in harmony and appreciation."

Jhingan was also ecstatic about how the Euros is seeing a return of the fans in big numbers. “Euros has brought a lot of smiles to the whole world. It is definitely about top quality football and a display of fantastic skills and tactics. What it has also done is bringing the fans back to the stadiums. That was one big thing that everyone was waiting for since the pandemic started. This tells much about the energy and vitality of football and its ability to bring the whole world together,” Jhingan, who is covering the Euro 2020 for Sony Ten 2 as a panelist, said.

The star defender was impressed with how the Netherlands have performed beyond expectations. “The Netherlands, which was not expected to do well, did impress with the change in their playing style. They are not playing in the traditional 4-3-3 format that they invented. They seemed to have moved ahead of that and are displaying a nicer brand of football.

"Italy is another side which has done really well under Roberto Mancini. They have three clean sheets and that tells a lot about how well the team has shaped up. Again Germany putting up a struggle in the initial stages appeared quite strange to me,” was how Jhingan summed up his Euro experience so far.