From Champions League to the ballot box, soccer pushes European vote, including Atalanta, Napoli, and Milan

Brussels – From the winner of the Europa League, Gian Piero Gasperini’s Atalanta, to the Champions League final scheduled for Saturday (June 1) between Spain’s Real Madrid and Germany’s Borussia Dortmund, European elections are bursting onto the soccer fields (and beyond), when the June 6-9 vote is now only a few days away, thanks to the European Parliament’s constant mobilization with the
“Use Your Vote”campaign to raise awareness of the importance of going to the polls among citizens of all 27 EU member states.

Some of Europe’s most famous female soccer players—including Belgium’s captain Tessa Wullaert, German defender Anna Johanning and Finnish striker Sanni Franssi—have signed a #UseYourVote ball to encourage female citizens not to remain indifferent to the upcoming transnational democratic exercise. And they have set the example for fellow Luka Modrić, Marko Reus, and teammates, who will take the field to play in the final of the top club football competition on the European continent on Saturday night in London (ironically, in the very United Kingdom that will not participate in European elections for the first time since 1979).

However, some of Europe’s leading soccer clubs have already used their social media platforms—or pledged to do so in the last ten days of the campaign—to remind and invite all fans to participate in the June 6-9 vote. Atalanta, Milan, Napoli, but also Bayern München, Eintracht Frankfurt, and German Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen: “Every vote counts, for democracy, for parties and democratic values,” writes the Frankfurt team on its X profile.

In Brussels, in the heart of the European Union capital, Everton and Belgian national team midfielder Amadou Onana organized a mini-tournament for 16- to 18-year-olds to encourage them to vote for the first time. In addition to soccer, Paralympic bronze medalist in the Triathlon at Tokyo 2020, Italy’s Veronika Yoko Plebani, sported a #UseYourVote campaign scarf during Milan Fashion Week, while the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) tournament at the Internationaux de Strasbourg displayed a #UseYourVote campaign banner at the host venue.