Mu Pa – from Mae Sai to Ellen Degeneres Show in LA
US daytime talk-show queen, Ellen Degeneres, posted on her Facebook page that the Mu Pa soccer team will be appearing on her program tomorrow (US time).
“There was no story more captivating this summer than the Thai soccer team trapped in a cave.”
She also posted a picture of herself with all the 13 Mu Pa team members, wearing Ellen-brand football tops in the show’s California studio. Seated with the team was Swedish football star Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the former Manchester United player and now LA Galaxy player.
“This Monday, they’re all here,” she said in her post.
In Thailand, the show will be broadcast on TrueVisions 339 – Lifetime channel – at 8pm.
This is the Thai team’s most high-profile international television appearance since the gripping three-day rescue operation in July from the Tham Luang cave in Chiang Rai, after being trapped inside for two weeks.
Officials had earlier asked that the boys’ right to privacy be respected after their gruelling ordeal. The Thai government even set up a committee to monitor projects and control media access to them. But the PR value of ‘Mu Pa On Tour’ has broken down a lot of the earlier barriers.
In the last few months, several documentary film-makers, Hollywood producers and journalists have jostled to make films and get book deals about the dramatic international rescue.
Last Sunday, the boys played a friendly match with the youth team of the Argentinian giants, River Plate, after attending the opening ceremony of the Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires the day before.
SOURCE: The Nation
