Leveraging the 2019 Ballon d’Or awards ceremony, in which he finished a very close second, Nike shone the spotlight on Virgil van Dijk’s rise to being one of the world’s best footballers with a social film which forms part of the brand’s ongoing ‘Birthplace Of Dreams’ initiative
Launched ahead of the 2019 ceremony for the Ballon d’Or (Golden Ball), France Football’s annual award which has been given to the world’s top player each year since 1956, the spot saw Liverpool defender Virgil Van Dijk become the first UK-based athlete to feature in Nike’s ‘Birthplace of Dreams’ series.
The four-minute film follows Van Dijk to his birthplace in Breda and then on to Groningen where he played his first professional football.
Van Dijk was raised as a football-obsessed child playing in the caged courts near his home of Breda (southern Holland) and is now a star for club and country, a European Champion and recognized as the world’s finest defender.
“I was born in Breda. But it’s the things I’ve overcome on my journey from there that have made me the player I am today,” he said.
The film debuted in IGTV (the standalone video application by Instagram for Android and iOS smartphones which allows for longer videos which is available as a standalone app and within the Instagram app and website) and then rolled out across Nike’s other digital and social channels.
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Posted on 1 December, the spot has thus far racked up more than 1,239,516 views across Instagram and boasts another 150,000 views on Nike’s YouTube channel.
The ongoing sportswear behemoth’s Birthplace Of Dreams’ ambassador series takes leading athletes from the Nike stable back to their hometowns and to streets that first inspired them and where they first learned their craft.
Other sports stars who have featured in spots in the series have included New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley (from the Bronx)
Spanish tennis legend Rafael Nadal (from Mallorca),
South African track star Caster Semenya (from Limpopo),
and Australian women’s football star Sam Kerr (from Perth).
Links:
Nike
https://www.youtube.com/user/nike
https://www.instagram.com/nike/
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