Premier League stars record Songkran videos for Thai fans
Famous football clubs across the world posted video clips and messages wishing their Thai fans a happy Songkran festival on Thursday.
Tottenham Hotspur were one among several English Premier League teams offering best wishes for the Thai New Year.
Spurs players featured in a "Happy Songkran Day" video posted on London club’s Facebook page. Tottenham stars led by keeper Hugo Lloris and Brazil international Richarlison showed off their Thai-language skills (perhaps aided by an autocue) to wish the country’s population a happy New Year. A video of Spurs players joining hands to sing the song "Ram Wong Wan Songkran" had received 14,000 views and 897 likes as of Friday morning.
Manchester United joined the festive fun with a "Happy Songkran Day" message wishing their Thai fans happiness and good health.
Thai-owned Leicester City posted a Songkran video clip featuring three of their star players – Harry Souttar, James Maddison and Youri Tielemans.
The club’s women’s team also gate-crashed the Songkran celebrations, with Courtney Nevin, Molly Pike, Remy Siemsen, Missy Goodwin, Georgia Eaton-Collins and Aileen Whelan greeting Thai fans for the traditional New Year.
The clip had been viewed 3,800 times with 452 likes as of Friday morning.
In Italy, Juventus reached out to their Thai fan club with a photo featuring three of its stars posing at a famous landmark in Chiang Mai.
Ángel Di María, Manuel Locatelli and Dušan Vlahović were pictured at Tha Phae Gate, a focus for Songkran celebration in the northern city this week.
Meanwhile, the Premier League’s official Facebook page celebrated with a picture of top stars including Man City’s Erling Haaland, Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold and Man Utd’s Marcus Rashford firing water guns at each other in a traditional Songkran battle. The accompanying message wished all Thais a happy Songkran and safe travel over the holiday period.
Thailand is an important market for the Premier League, the world’s most-watched and highest-earning club football competition.
Thai fans’ passion for Premier League clubs was underlined last year when organisers of the friendly between Liverpool and Manchester Utd in Bangkok set the lowest ticket price at 5,000 baht.
