Chinese New Year: How the football world sent wishes for Lunar New Year 2021

On Friday, February 12, several clubs across the football world celebrated the Chinese New Year for 2021. Some of the top teams that celebrated the festival included Liverpool, Real Madrid, Inter Milan and Barcelona, who documented special videos to mark the day. The Lunar New Year celebrates the beginning of a New Year on the traditional lunisolar Chinese calendar. The day is one of the most important holidays in China and has strongly influenced the Lunar New Year celebrations around its neighbouring countries as well.

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Chinese New Year 2021: Football clubs celebrate Year of the Ox this Chinese New Year

Although the Chinese New Year is finally here, football clubs in Europe began planning their celebrations for the auspicious day well before time. Reigning Premier League giants Liverpool had some fun with their Chinese supporters by inviting Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, nicknamed the 'Ox', as part of their celebration video with the fans. The Chinese supporters began describing why it was a celebration for the 'Ox' and the Liverpool star appeared to agree with almost everything that was said, despite looking a tad confused as he was compared to the animal. Liverpool centre-back Nat Philips and midfielder Gini Wijnaldum were also present during the interactive session. 

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The celebrations from Barcelona also included a special video, which featured the likes of Frenkie de Jong, Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Philippe Coutinho, Sergiño Dest and Pedri Gonzalez. The five players were asked to perform a challenge which required them to perform keepy-ups with a colourful looking shuttlecock. The traditional game, which is played in China, is known as jianzi. The Barcelona players also sent their wishes to the rest of the footballing community.

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Real Madrid had Lucas Vazquez gift his teammate Luka Modric a unique club kit, which included the Madrid jersey and a pair of socks. However, they were all coloured red in the spirit of the festival. Modric was visibly delighted with his presents from Vazquez, who also handed the Croatian a note which read, "Happy Chinese New Year". 

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Serie A giants Inter Milan also celebrated the Chinese New Year in style. Inter forward Lautaro Martinez featured in a special video in which he dreamt of receiving a red card during a game. However, the Argentine woke up from his dream to see an official standing in front of him with a celebratory red card. The official is then heard saying, "2020, you are dismissed", much to the relief of Martinez. 

Image Credits - Inter.it