After coaching the women's hockey team to their first ever Olympic semi-final, man of the moment Sjoerd Marijne is winning the Internet with a Twitter conversation with superstar Shah Rukh Khan, reel life women's hockey coach Kabir Khan in 2007 film Chak De! India. India, led by Rani Rampal, beat Australia 1-0 in a victory that's been giving social media Chak De feels. On Twitter, Dutchman Sjoerd Marijne tweeted a picture of himself with the team, melting hearts with this apology to his family back home - "Sorry family, I coming again later." A hilarious response came from SRK, no less. He wrote: "Haan haan no problem. Just bring some gold on our way back... for a billion family members." He signed his tweet as "From: ex-coach Kabir Khan."
The last word belonged to Mr Marijne who tweeted this back to Shah Rukh Khan - "Thank you for all the support and love. We will give everything again. From: The Real Coach."
Their tweet exchange is breaking the Internet:
India's hockey win today is uncannily like Chak De! India in several ways - the beaten team both for real and reel was Australia. Gurjit Kaur converted a penalty corner to give India the only and winning goal at the Tokyo Olympics, edging into the semis; the film ended in a thrilling penalty shootout. Chak De! India starred Shah Rukh Khan as Kabir Khan, a disgraced former hockey player given a second chance as coach of an underdog women's team.
Many of the actresses who made up the film's hockey team also shared posts after India made it into the Olympic semi-final, among them Sagarika Ghatge, Vidya Malvade, Chitrashi Rawat and Shilpa Shukla. See their posts here:
Rean Rampal and team will play Argentina in the semi-final match on Wednesday.