ENGLAND TEAM-UP WITH WRETCH 32 FOR EUROS SQUAD ANNOUNCEMENT

By Rishma Dhaliwal • On What is New

The Foot­ball Asso­ci­ation has col­lab­or­ated with multi-award-win­ning music artist, Wretch 32, to unveil the Eng­land men’s UEFA EURO 2020 squad.

The rap and grime legend – real name Jer­maine Scott – has provided the cre­at­ive vis­ion behind a film titled The Call Up ft. Wretch 32, which premiered today to form­ally reveal the 26 play­ers Eng­land man­ager Gareth Southg­ate has selec­ted to rep­res­ent the coun­try at UEFA EURO 2020.

A life-long Eng­land fan, whose music has been streamed over 165 mil­lion times glob­ally, Wretch 32 is the cre­at­ive force behind The Call Up, which deliv­ers a mes­sage of unity and hope that uni­fies dif­fer­ent cul­tures, com­munit­ies and gen­er­a­tions.

The film is scored with a track penned by the crit­ic­ally acclaimed Brit­ish rap­per with Wretch using his rhymes to cel­eb­rate the play­ers, fans and volun­teers across the coun­try who form the back­bone of the foot­ball com­munity and issues a ral­ly­ing call for the nation to get behind the Three Lions this sum­mer.

The film show­cases a host of incred­ible indi­vidu­als and clubs that form the fab­ric of foot­ball in Eng­land with Wretch’s lyr­ics ref­er­en­cing the con­nec­tion between play­ers and sup­port­ers and the sense of unity, anti­cip­a­tion and hope that a major tour­na­ment brings.

Mem­bers of England’s Lion­hearts squad, includ­ing Har­monie-Rose Allen, Nana Badu and Emdad Rah­man, are among those fea­tured in the film. They star along­side FA Grass­roots Award win­ner and Cereb­ral Palsy foot­baller Olly Miller and the nurse’s team from Not­ting­ham Uni­ver­sity Hos­pit­al who, like mil­lions of oth­er key work­ers, have been work­ing around-the-clock through­out the pan­dem­ic.

The film closes with an illus­tra­tion by renowned artist Reuben Dan­goor — whose Three Lions-inspired art­work proved a vir­al hit dur­ing the FIFA 2018 World Cup — emblazoned on a tower block build­ing spot­light­ing Gareth Southg­ate and sev­er­al Eng­land play­ers along­side pil­lars of the com­munity. The final frame lists the 26 names Southg­ate has selec­ted for the UEFA EURO 2020 squad.

omment­ing on the pro­duc­tion, Kath­ryn Swar­brick, Com­mer­cial and Mar­ket­ing Dir­ect­or at The FA, said: “This squad announce­ment is a huge moment for Eng­land fans and, for us, it rep­res­ents much more than a list of 26 names. We know that the entire foot­ball com­munity, and bey­ond, will be pumped for the EUROs and we want to embrace that. Des­pite all the uncer­tainty and chal­lenges we’ve faced in the last 18 months; com­munity spir­it has nev­er been stronger, and few events unite a nation like a major foot­ball event.

“The film and the soundtrack are all about cap­tur­ing what foot­ball means to people and how those feel­ings build in anti­cip­a­tion for inter­na­tion­al tour­na­ments like the EUROs. Our cre­at­ive part­ners, led by Wretch 32, have done an incred­ible job in trans­lat­ing the pas­sion, excite­ment and expect­a­tion that UEFA EURO 2020 rep­res­ents for foot­ball fans in this coun­try.”

Talk­ing about his role in the pro­ject, Wretch 32, said:

 “This is the closest I’ll get to get­ting an Eng­land call up! I had to use all my cre­at­ive juices to bring this one to life, hope­fully it gets every­one excited and united as it’s been a tough time, but the touch-line is ahead.”

The FA col­lab­or­ated with Uni­ver­sal Music Globe and Wretch 32 to con­ceive and com­mis­sion the film, the soundtrack and Reuben Dangoor’s icon­ic mur­al. The pro­duc­tion was shot by Riff Raff with dir­ec­tion from self-taught film­maker Keane Pearce Shaw, who has over­seen glob­al cam­paigns for the likes of FIFA, EA Sports and Nike fea­tur­ing foot­ball legends that include former Eng­land cap­tain, Dav­id Beck­ham, Lionel Messi and Cris­ti­ano Ron­aldo.

Eng­land will face fel­low EURO final­ists Aus­tria tomor­row and Romania on Sunday for oblig­at­ory pre-tour­na­ment fix­tures at the River­side Sta­di­um, Middles­brough, before kick­ing-off their UEFA EURO 2020 cam­paign against Croa­tia at Wemb­ley Sta­di­um on June 13.

The fol­low­ing two tabs change con­tent below.
Rishma Dhaliwal
My Facebook profileMy LinkedIn profileMy Instagram profile

Rishma Dhaliwal

Edit­or / PR Con­sult­ant at No Bounds
Rishma Dhali­w­al has extens­ive exper­i­ence study­ing and work­ing in the music and media industry. Hav­ing writ­ten a thes­is on how Hip Hop acts as a social move­ment, she has spent years research­ing and con­nect­ing with artists who use the art form as a tool for bring­ing a voice to the voice­less. Cur­rently work­ing in TV, Rishma brings her PR and media know­ledge to I am Hip Hop and oth­er pro­jects by No Bounds.

Read More:

WRETCH 32 ANNOUNCES NEW PRO­JECT LITTLE BIG MAN — OUT THIS FRI­DAY Default ThumbnailWhat is New The Lost Chil­dren Of Babylon (@TheLCOB) ‘Beware of The Zeit­geist’ No Bounds Launch Pic­tures + Video ! Default ThumbnailFOR THE LOVE OF MUSIC WITH MIKEY SMITH

About Rishma Dhaliwal

Rishma Dhaliwal
Rishma Dhaliwal has extensive experience studying and working in the music and media industry. Having written a thesis on how Hip Hop acts as a social movement, she has spent years researching and connecting with artists who use the art form as a tool for bringing a voice to the voiceless. Currently working in TV, Rishma brings her PR and media knowledge to I am Hip Hop and other projects by No Bounds.