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England-Denmark: Thomas Delaney, a colorblind staring at the Euro final

2021-07-07T14:52:20.411Z


Aged 29, the Dane had revealed his color blindness during the 2018 World Cup. On the grounds of the Euro, he traces his path with his vision leaves


“My name is Thomas.

I am color blind and it happens.

The other day in the field, it was difficult to see who was in my team or not ”.

The confession of Thomas Delaney, Danish midfielder of 29, dates from a few days before the 2018 World Cup. During a friendly match between Denmark and Mexico, on June 9 of that year (2-0) , his team evolves with a red jersey and white shorts against a Mexican selection in green jersey and white shorts.

So far, so good ?

Not really.

While listening to Danish radio DR P3, Delaney hears the testimony of a fan explaining his difficulties in recognizing the two teams on television.

Neither one nor two, he picks up his phone and pronounces the words mentioned above.

"What team are you on?

", Retorts to him on the radio.

"In Danish selection," he replied.

On June 26 of the same year, he and his team faced the Blues, future world champions, in the third group match (0-0).

"It's like seeing different tones of the same color"

A few years later, with the German news agency DPA, Thomas Delaney more precisely described his vision: “It's hard to describe. It's like seeing different tones of the same color. Usually we have different shorts. But this time

(Editor's note: during Denmark-Mexico)

, both were white, which complicated things even more. What I did was just rely on the faces, but I had to do it quickly so as not to lose the ball. When people are around, you can easily see him. But when the pace is high and they have further, it's a bit difficult. "

To put it simply, Thomas Delaney suffers from so-called “red-green” color blindness, the most common even if it is not the only one (8 types of color blindness exist).

Around 350 million people have it worldwide.

A deformation of vision, characterized by a genetic anomaly, which affects approximately 8% of men in France for 0.45% of women.

The majority of players do not talk about it

Concretely, instead of distinguishing between red and green, our Danish midfielder will see for example two shades of khaki green. In 2017, UEFA, the English Federation (FA) and the British Association Color Blind Awareness mobilized to democratize this vision disorder. An 80-page booklet was then published by UEFA to detail the difficulties surrounding color blindness and explain to educators around the world how to react. Mark, a former English referee, testified thus to the barriers encountered during his career: “I have sometimes asked teams to change shirts because of a confusion of colors and I have been criticized because others would have made the distinction ”.

To the BBC, British television, Kathryn Albany-Ward, founder of the organization Color Blind Awareness, welcomed in 2018 the public statements of Thomas Delaney: "He is the first elite and active player to recognize him publicly. .

I don't think you know what this means.

The majority do not talk about it because they are afraid that it will affect their value

(Editor's note: on the market).

"

Thomas Delaney has not spoken publicly about it since.

Qualified for the semi-final of the Euro, against England on Wednesday (9 p.m.), the Danish midfielder may have the opportunity to be the first officially colorblind player to lift the Henri-Delaunay trophy.

Source: leparis

All sports articles on 2021-07-07

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