Project Time: The biggest Uruguay fan

By Camila Durán
Level: FCE

The biggest Uruguay supporter out of the country

Ivan Eginsson Esturland,   is a man  from Faroe island who has a huge crazy   passion for Uruguay.   He was recently known for starring  Oca’s* advertisement for the 2014 World Cup.

He was always interested in geography, since he was a child he studied about lots of countries and that was the way he found Uruguay and started investigating about it.

When he was a teenager he got an interest in football and when he watched by chance a video of Uruguay playing for the qualifiers  to Italy 90’s world cup he fell in love with the way of playing that the footballers had, with  the   sky-blue t-shirt but what really caught his attention were the   supporters and the passion that they showed  cheering  the team.

 Actually he knows a lot of Uruguay in general, he said that every 19^th of June** he changes his profile picture for Artigas picture, he even has an Artigas painting in his living room. He also knows a lot about Uruguayan  football, not just this generation, he knows about historical players, his idol is Luis Cubilla but he got the chance to know the famous  Alcides Ghiggia in his first visit to our country in 2008,  and got a picture with him, that picture was what caught the attention of the publicists of the advertisement.

Ivan came to Uruguay for the first time in 2008 and he came 6 times since then, he even rented a house in La Paloma during the summer and he has already been in the 19 main cities. 

 He says that he would love to move to Uruguay, even though  he thinks you have to be quite rich to live here.

He works selling things for fishers, due to his work he was able to see Uruguay playing in several countries for several events, actually he organizes his schedule according to where Uruguay will be playing.

Despite his big passion for Uruguay he doesn’t speak Spanish, but he can sing the whole anthem perfectly by heart, he even got it as his ring tone, and he yells ¡arriba la celeste!”, in an almost perfect Spanish

 His wife Kinga  in the advertisement says that is pretty difficult to be married with a Uruguay supporter because he always wakes her up in the middle of the night just to see the matches, however she  ended up being a Uruguay supporter too, she says that  she got her own sky  blue t-shirt, and  she has  made a painting of Artigas, and another  of our flag, both are hung in their living room together with a lot of posters, t-shirts, and other things of Uruguay.

Currently Ivan is in Brazil seeing the World Cup but he is planning to travel to Montevideo if Uruguay makes it to the final, he confessed that one of his dreams is having Faroes island and Uruguay faced in a match, who would he support if this got to happen?

* OCA is a Uruguayan credit card

**June 19th is José Gervasio Artigas, Uruguay national hero's birthday.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kc8jX2xPdgE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqJUcrVa94k

Camila's activity for her classmates

Multiple choice:

1: Ivan got really interested in Uruguay when:

A: he started studying about it.

B: he saw the country’s football team.

c: he came to the country.

D: his wife made a painting of Artigas.

2: The thing that attracted him the most when he first watched a match was:

A the sky blue  t-shirt

B: the way of playing of the footballers

C: how supportive was the people

D: the anthem

3: His wife says that:

A: is annoying to be awaken at night because of the matches.

B: Ivan is crazy.

C: is not easy to be married with an Uruguay supporter.

D: she would like moving to Uruguay.

4: Ivan’s biggest dream is:

A: traveling around Uruguay.

B: moving to Uruguay.

C: meeting Luis Cubilla.

D: having his country and ours faced in a match.

Camila checking the answers