If there is one sport other than cricket that Indian cricketers love to play is the world’s most popular game, football.
One may have seen several times how cricketers play football during their warm-up sessions. Team India’s opener Rohit Sharma is also a big football lover, and recently he was named as the first brand ambassador in India for Spanish League, La Liga.
Jose Antonio Cachaza, Managing Director of LaLiga India, on Wednesday, announced that Rohit Sharma had become the league’s first-ever non-footballer brand ambassador.
Rohit also took to Twitter to expresse as to what he feels about the gratification.
“Hola India/España, as you guys know, football has always held a special place in my heart, so this association is so special to me. And to be named the ambassador for the La Liga is so humbling. So excited for this partnership @LaLigaEN ,” tweeted Rohit.
Hola India/España, as you guys know, football has always held a special place in my heart so this association is so special to me. And to be named the ambassador for the La Liga is so humbling. So excited for this partnership @LaLigaEN pic.twitter.com/prZFFSeHdV
— Rohit Sharma (@ImRo45) December 12, 2019
The 32-year-old also named ‘Zinedine Zidane’ as his favorite footballer while his favorite club is Real Madrid.
Amongst the cricketers, he rated MS Dhoni as the best footballer.
“I think MS Dhoni is the best footballer in our team. There are few guys like Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, and Hardik Pandya. They follow football, and they do watch all these footballers,” said Rohit.
The Mumbai batsman revealed that his first love was always cricket, but football remained very close to his heart.
“Cricket was my love to start with. Football was very, very close to me. Only because it gives me so much joy to watch all these players when they score a goal they celebrate, they make those moves on the field. Those kinds of things I used to look forward to. I always used to watch football when I was growing up. In India, cricket is how football is in Spain. Everybody wants to pick up the bat and play cricket in India,” added Rohit.
Talking about the future of football in India, Rohit said, “It takes time for any sport to develop in a country. Look at where we were now in the 1930s in cricket and look where we have reached now. I hope it doesn’t take that much time for football.”
