Euro 2016: Virat Kohli declares his support for Germany
The European Championships are due to start in a few days and even India’s cricketers are getting in on the footballing craze. Indian batsman Virat Kohli, who is known to be an avid follower of football has declared his support for tournament favourites and World Champions Germany in the upcoming tournament.
The batsman, who has been compared to Sachin Tendulkar, declared his support for the Germans with a post on his Twitter account:
The Royal Challengers Bangalore batsman is a known supporter of Germany, having publicly supported the Diemannschaft for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. He had also posted a few tweets after Germany’s win against Portugal where Thomas Muller had scored a hat-trick.
Kohli is an ardent fan of the sport and plays as a midfielder. He recently played a “Celebrity Clasico” football match for charity.
Kohli’s charity, the Virat Kohli Foundation got together with Abhishek Bachchan’s “Playing for humanity” to organise a football match between two star-studded teams composed of various Indian celebrities.
Virat Kohli’s team was a cricketer dominated affair with Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shikhar Dhawan and Yuvraj Singh lining up for the All Hearts XI. Abhishek Bachchan’s team, the All-stars XI featured Bollywood stars Ranbir Kapoor, Aditya Roy Kapoor, Dino Morea and Arjun Kapoor.
The Celebrity Clasico had finished in a 2-2 draw with Virat Kohli’s side fighting back after conceding two goals.
Kohli had been in magnificent form in the recently concluded IPL season where he finished as the highest run-scorer with 973 runs scored in 16 matches for the Royal Challengers Bangalore. He scored an unprecedented four centuries, the highest in an IPL season en-route to his 973 runs.
Also read: Best moments from Celebrity Clasico 2016
The Royal Challengers batting line-up, led by Kohli had been crucial in the franchise reaching the finals of the tournament, compensating for their comparatively lightweight bowling department. Although the team could not manage to win the tournament, Kohli emerged with his reputation unscathed.
The explosive batsman has been rested for India’s upcoming limited overs tour to Zimbabwe and will be supporting the Germans in this year’s euros. The Indian test team captain will now don the India jersey in only in July when India tour the West Indies for a four-match test series.