06/14/2024
The Scottish fan Craig Ferguson arrived just in time in Munich, Germany, for the opening game of the Euro 2024 between his country’s national team and the German team. He did it after walking for 42 days from Glasgow to the capital of Bavaria, in the south of the Germanic country.
Dressed in the typical skirt of his native country and a T-shirt from the Scotland national team, arrived on the German afternoon of Thursday to the city where this edition of the Euro begins this Friday. The members of the Tartan Army, as the groups of fans of the Scottish national team are known, received him with jumps, hugs and cheers for the feat he achieved. The party was so big that it was reported that beers were in short supply in the center of the Bavarian capital.
Ferguson walked 1,000 miles. He did so with the aim of sending a message of awareness about the importance of mental health in Scotland, one of the countries with the highest male suicide rate in the European Union in recent years.
The initial goal of the young Scottish fan, who is 20 years old, was to collect 5,000 euros to donate to the organization Brothers in Arms, to which several Scottish football fans belong. The story of her walk, which he recorded with discipline on his Instagram and TikTok profiles, impacted people in the countries he passed through: He already has more than 50,000 euros in his account that will be used to encourage the importance of mental treatments in Scotland.
“I’m exhausted but happy. “It has been the hardest experience of my life, but also the most rewarding,” the fan told the newspaper. Scottish Sunafter he finished his journey, which took him through five countries.
Ferguson crossed the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and much of Germany to see the debut of his national team. The idea for the trip, which was planned with the meticulousness of a scientist, arose from an ironic comment from a friend when they were talking about the topic of mental health. “Go walk to Germany,” he told her.
Young Craig took his friend at his word. He planned the trip in such a way that every day he had to travel 37 kilometers a day, 5 less than he has to do in a marathon. He started the tour outside Hampden Stadium in Glasgow. He went to Newcastle, in England.
He then traveled to the city of Hull. There he took a ferry that took him to Rotterdam, in the Netherlands. Afterwards he went down to the city of Maastricht, where he crossed the border into Belgium. Afterwards he walked to Luxembourg and arrived at the country on which the football world has its eyes fixed at the moment: Germany.
“Walking new places and meeting new people has been my favorite part of the trip. I did it because I have witnessed the impact of poor mental health on those around me, families, friends who have lost their lives,” she explained in an interview with BBC London.
After the celebration party for the deed, Ferguso went to rest. Surely at this moment he is in the stands of the Alianz Arena stadium in Munich, where the Euro will officially begin. The duty accomplished is his greatest motivation and joy. And after the physical exhaustion to which he underwent, he assured that he will try not to walk in the next 6 months: “now, I will take planes, trains and buses, but I will definitely not walk,” he concluded.
