The Red Devils are the best and finest football players from Belgium. The team is loaded with talent — global stars in the team include Eden Hazard, Kevin De Bruyne, Vincent Kompany, Romelu Lukaku, while Jan Vertonghen and Toby Alderweireld are both leading defenders and Thibaut Courtois is one of the best goalkeepers in history.
The current Belgian Red Devils squad is being considered to be the “Golden Generation of Belgian Football”. They were the first European team to qualify for this World Cup and they have remained unbeaten throughout the tournament. Before the start of the World Cup, many commentators have called the Red Devils one of the top five contenders to win the Cup. They have already shown that they deserve this praise as they have now reached the semi-finals. They have already beaten both Brazil and England. The last time that the Belgian team reached this far was at the World Cup in Mexico in 1986.
All of them were born and raised in Belgium where they were fully developed their individual talents. They represent every one of us, Belgians. The Red Devils are not only excellent footballers, they are also excellent ambassadors of our country and its societal model. A model that strives to create equal opportunities for all, enabling everyone to develop their talents not just in football, but also in scientific research, as entrepreneurs and as creators of the great life style-products.
One of the best Belgian chocolatiers for example, is Pierre Marcolini. He was born in Charleroi, Belgium, with Italian roots. We value him as a superb craftsman who further develops the existing tradition of creating the best Belgian chocolate in the world. The most important thing for Belgium is not the origin of a person but the future of every single individual whereby no one gets excluded irrespective of their religion or cultural background.
Football is a low-threshold sport with equal starting opportunities for everyone. The existing talent is nurtured, and developed through a good sports and youth policy allowing anyone, from the smallest village to the capital Brussels, to excel in what they are good at. The diversity of our national football team is the result of merit. The ultimate success of each individual Red Devil is the fruit of hard work and dedication to a professional football career. Hence our great admiration for this team and for their performance.
The Belgian Embassy in New Delhi has organised screenings of all the Belgian matches during the World Cup. Most of the football fans that we invite are from the local Belgian community, but we also invite Indian football fans with whom our Embassy has a very good working relationship from the business and cultural sector and officials of the countries against whom we play against. Several players from the New Delhi FC Dynamos have attended the screenings. We are very grateful that they are all #REDTOGETHER with us.
We want to share our excitement with everyone who loves football in India. Through our live screening and via our social media we make Belgium, our craftsmanship (one of our leading companies Barco ensures the projection), our values and our quality of life visible and tangible. The World Cup gives us another good opportunity to celebrate 70 years of diplomatic relations and friendship between India and Belgium. Not just with football but also with Belgian beers, Belgian fries and Belgian waffles.
You can follow the Belgium embassy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/BelgiuminIndia and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/embassybelgiumdelhi.
(Jan Luykx is Ambassador of the Kingdom of Belgium to India. Views are personal.)
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