‘Astonishing’: Welsh actor Michael Sheen delivers a football coach’s dream speech
Welsh actor Michael Sheen has shown every sports coach in the world how a pre-match motivational speech should be delivered.
Sheen, appearing on the UK sports comedy quiz TV show A League Of Their Own, was asked by Romesh Ranganathan what he would agree to whenever allowed the opportunity to start up the Welsh football side in front of its impending World Cup apparatus against Britain.
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The entertainer, known as a wild Welsh nationalist, continued to convey an evident spur-of-the-moment discourse for the ages that had each individual from the show’s live audience and cast lauding and applauding him by its end.
“I have to get in the right head space now,” Sheen said before launching into the rousing speech. “OK.”
Sheen then spread his arms, palms wide open and fingers spread, and delivered a monologue to end all monologues.
“I hear the voices singing. Speed your journey, Bois bach,” Sheen began, using the Welsh exclamation for “good heavens”.
“One country, singing with one voice, a melody of trust, a tune of mental fortitude.
“A victory song that floats through the valleys, like a red mist, rolls over the mountain tops, like crimson thunder.
“A red storm is coming to the gates of Qatar.
“It crackles, with the spirit of ‘58 and Jimmy Murphy’s boys. It turns the pages of the history books and finds Rob’s page, waiting, still to be written,” Sheen said, referring to Wales coach Rob Page.
“What might you right in there, young men? Might you venture to compose your names on that page? We haven’t held up 64 years and come most of the way all over the planet to be pained by a neighbor from back home.
“When the English coming knock on our door, let‘s give them some sugar, boys, let’s give them some Welsh sugar. They’ve always said we are too small, we are too slow, we are too weak, too full of fear. But yma o hyd (‘Still here’, the title of a famous Welsh nationalistic folk song), you sons of Speed, and they fall around us.
The clip registered more than 5.5 million views on Twitter in less than 11 hours.
The 2022 FIFA World Cup begins November 20 in Qatar, with Wales placed in a group alongside England, Iran, and the United States. It is only the second time in history that Wales has qualified for the tournament, the group’s last appearance coming in 1958.
This article originally appeared in the NZ Herald and was reproduced with permission