Unless you’ve been living under a rock then you’ll know by now that Liverpool have won their first league title for 30 years… you’ll never walk alone.
Which is of course their salute to each other and when I say ‘their’ I do of course mean ‘our’.
Because we used to live in Liverpool www.visitliverpool.com and the Son and Heir was born there and took the team with the city’s name in it as his club.
Setting the pace
Little would Gerry & The Pacemakers know when they released their cover of the Rogers and Hammerstein song from the musical Carousel in 1964…
But this song would become the most famous ‘football’ song in history.
Interestingly too it is shared with the first British winners of the European Cup, Celtic.
Liverpool may be obvious because Marsden is a Liverpudlian.
Celtic tribe
And the-then manager Bill Shankly is said to have swooped on the song when he met the singer.
But Glaswegian giants Celtic https://peoplemakeglasgow.com is less obvious and in fact dates to 1966 when the two teams met in European competition.
There has never though been any rivalry over the song between the two clubs whose fans have enjoyed a long bond with each other.
The anthem has been taken up by teams abroad with Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp’s former club Borussia Dortmund playing it.
Ja beauty
And as you know my mantra when going anywhere is to seek out where they play and pray… https://www.germany.travel/en-mobile/index.html.
And whisper it around the Westfalenstadion but my football education in Germany has been in Munich.
There are of course two teams in the city and 1860 also play at the Allianz Arena along with Bayern.
The Dutch too have embraced YNWA.
With the Liverpool stadium speaker George Sephton giving FC Twente the song when they moved stadiums.
Dutch of magic
While Feyenoord and SC Cambuur have also taken the song to their hearts.
I’ve been all over Dutch football since I adopted them as my ‘second team’ after watching Johan Cruyff’s side of the mid-Seventies.
And Dutchland since I became old enough to organise my own holidays Pictures of Amsterdam and George Clooney and Amal’s Amsterdam hotel and www.iamsterdam.com.
In fact wander around Europe (as I do for you, dear reader) and you’ll find more nationalities walking on with hope in their hearts.
Belgian waffling
Brugge is a delightful Medieval city of canals, culture, chocolates and churches In Flanders fields and https://gtitravel.ie https://www.visitflanders.com/en/?country=en_GB.
But it also has a link to Liverpool as it was Brugge who lost to Liverpool in the English club’s first European Cup final in 1978.
But who came away with a song, You’ll Never Walk Alone.
The others are more random but the destinations are right up my street.
Walk this way
I guess it makes sense that CD Lugo, in Spain’s Second Division, should have taken it as their song.
As they hail from Galicia, Camino heartland www.CaminoWays.com and A pilgrim’s prayer.
Why it’s the song of PAOK in Thessaloniki, Indonesia’s Bali United and Japan’s FC Tokyo then that’s one more reason to check out…
Athens’ https://athensattica.com My Greek odyssey little brother https://thessaloniki.travel/en/, https://www.bali.com and https://www.gotokyo.org/en/index.html.
