Indian women hockey’s coach Sjoerd Marijne responds to ‘ex coach’ Shah Rukh Khan as team enters semi finals at the Olympics ​​​​​​​

India celebrated as Indian women’s hockey team defeated Australia on Monday and qualified for the semi-finals at the Tokyo Olympics. And among the numerous celebratory tweets, it is a tweet by ‘ex-coach’ Kabir Khan aka Shah Rukh Khan that caught Indian coach Sjoerd Marijne’s attention. 

Many drew comparisons between the nail biting quarter final that the two teams played with the climax sequence of Bollywood superhit ‘Chak De! India’. Much like the film, where coach Kabir Khan (played by SRK) broke down as the Indian team defeated Australian team, on Monday, a clip of Marijne getting emotional at the team’s win went viral on the internet. 

Calling it the ‘real Chak De moment’, the clip was shared far and wide on Twitter as fans in India celebrated the win. 

As Marijne shared a selfie with the team, he captioned it as, “Sorry family, I am coming again later’. 

SRK, a sports enthusiast, shared Marijne’s tweet and gave a reference of ‘Chak De! India’ as he wrote, “Haan haan no problem. Just bring some Gold on your way back….for a billion family members. This time Dhanteras is also on 2nd Nov. From: Ex-coach Kabir Khan.” 

Khan was referring to Dhanteras- a Hindu festival that falls right before Diwali where people typically mark the auspicious day by buying gold. Incidentally it falls this year on the actor’s birthday. 

Marijne responded to Khan’s tweet as said, “Thank you for all the support and love. We will give everything again. From: The Real Coach.” The coach added a winking emoji along with his tweet. 

Team India will be playing against Argentina in the semi finals and we hope that much like the film, the team will able to bring a gold home.