The story of the kids football team that got rescued after being stuck in an underwater cave for 17 days took the world by storm.
In the middle of all the appalling stories of divisions,polarisations,global war,murder and mayhem here was a story about the world coming together to pull off a miraculous rescue of a bunch of kids who were going to drown.
The “Wild Boars”football team and their coach Ekkapol Ake Chantawonghave become celebrities after that.
They have been in Argentina for the youth Olympic summer games in Buenos Aires, and on Tuesday they were presented with the Asian game-changer award by the Thai prime minister, Prayut Chan-o-cha, recognising the “glory” they had brought on the Thai people and their country.
And they got to be on American TV when they were featured on the Ellen DeGeneres Show a few days ago.
And they were given a brilliant surprise at the show when Zlatan,that lion among the football players of the world,that epitome of courage and kungfu,turned up to give them all high fives and to tell them that he approved of them in no uncertain terms.
He said: “This team is braver than me. And they show their collective team work. This is probably the best team in the world.”
Never before has Zlatan ever acknowledged that there was anybody in the world braver than himself.These kids and their coach are surely something else .