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VIDEO: Iceland salutes football heroes

Author
Newstalk ZB Staff ,
Publish Date
Wed, 6 Jul 2016, 9:17am

VIDEO: Iceland salutes football heroes

Author
Newstalk ZB Staff ,
Publish Date
Wed, 6 Jul 2016, 9:17am

Thousands of ecstatic Icelanders welcomed their national football team back to Reykjavik, a day after they were eliminated by France in the Euro 2016 quarter-finals in Paris.

The team was ferried in a double-decker open-roofed bus through the capital's downtown while people who had gathered along the route applauded them on Monday.

The journey ended at Arnarholl Park, near the port, where the team mounted a stage where to be greeted by President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson and Prime Minister Sigurdur Ingi Johannsson, who was wearing a team jersey.

One by one, the team members were introduced and cheered by the crowd, but the biggest ovation came for a Swede, the team's coach - Lars Lagerback - the man who has crafted and managed an incredible transformation in Icelandic soccer.

Lagerback, who is stepping down as coach, said that Iceland's great success was a collective action, and thanked the team for their support saying that he felt at home in this country of 330,000.

After the last speech was delivered, players and team staffers joined the crowd repeating the customary ritual that made its mark on this year's Euro competition: drumbeats, rhythmic clapping and finally a roared exclamation of "Uhh!" - a sequence repeated faster and faster until it ends in an explosion of noise and cheering.

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