Denmark’s senior football players have split the country over the past week.
In a commercial dispute with the Danish football association, the DBU, they’ve been looking for beneficial terms and a freedom to negotiate their own sponsorships, regardless of whether those sponsorships are in direct competition with deals the DBU negotiates.
Some supporters in the country have backed the players, at least to a point, but there’s been others who have seen them as greedy and out of touch.
The normal squad got back together for Sunday’s match against Wales, with Denmark beating Ryan Giggs’ side 2-0.
Middlesbrough’s Martin Braithwaite played the entire match. The 27 year old was upfront for Denmark, and the country’s media suggest he put in a good, if not excellent, performance.
Afterwards the forward wanted to make clear how big his commitment is to the national team, with the Middlesbrough player quoted by Bold as saying: “It shows that we are willing to die to play for our country. It was important for us to win against Wales.”
After going slightly overboard, there’s no real life danger in playing the Welsh in Aarhus, Braithwaite added: “It shows that we have a good mentality because there has been a focus on other things. We showed on the pitch that we were able to shut ourselves in and just think of winning the matches.”
