AL RAYYAN, Qatar — Michael Sheen asked for a moment to “get in the right headspace,” but that didn’t take the Welsh actor long. Appearing on the British show A League of Their Own in September, Sheen was challenged to conjure an improvisational pre-game pep talk he might deliver to a Wales squad that had qualified for the World Cup for the first time since the 1950s.
Fueled by that wait, a lot of obvious national pride and, clearly, a bit of the indignation that comes from centuries of marginalization, Sheen let it rip in a rousing oration that quickly went viral.
“I hear the voices singing. Speed your journey, bois bach [dear boys],” he began. “One nation, singing with one voice—a song of hope, a song of courage, a victory song that floats through the valleys like a red mist, rolls over the mountaintops like crimson thunder. A red storm is coming to the gates of Qatar!”
