Since 1992, every match of the UEFA Champions League starts the same way: with a cathartic moment, when the teams enter the pitch listening to the competition's anthem: an opera with verses in 3 languages combined: english, german and french. But Santander, sponsor of the event wondered: this is a global event, with players from over 70 countries with 35 different official languages. Shouldn't the anthem represent them all? So we recorded the anthem in all languages spoken by the players, making it more inclusive. It was the first time ever UEFA authorized a sponsor to reimagine its greatest icon.

Soccer is more than a sport. It's a passion that unites all the world. And no competition represents this more than the UEFA Champions League. Not even the World Cup that has players from 32 countries. Because the UEFA Champions League has players from over 70 countries, playing together for the same teams. Soccer stars like the egyptian striker Mohammed Salah and south korean legend Son Heung-Min. It's a global event, with twice the audience of the Super Bowl and broadcasted to over 170 countries. But the competition's anthem that is played before every match isn't that global: it's only sung in 3 different languages: english, german and french. So, as global sponsor of the event, Santander wondered: shouldn't the anthem be more inclusive and representative of all players's cultures and origins?

The UEFA Champions League's anthem is a classic: every soccer fan knows its powerful melody, that combines verses in english, german and french. But since the competition has players from all the world, we decided we need to record the anthem in all their mother languages, to make it more inclusive. It was only fair to sing it in portuguese, mother language of Cristiano Ronaldo, top goal scorer of the competition. And also in spanish, mother language of Lionel Messi, 3 times winner. And also in all players 35 official languages, representing 74 countries. Since the UEFA Champions League is a competition between champions, we needed a campaign to show a champion attitude. So the concept behind all this was: "when we defeat barriers, distances and differences, we become true champions".

Santander is global sponsor of the UEFA Champions League since 2017. But Heineken is its partner since 2005, making it the competition's most iconic brand. That's why in order to stand out, we targetted the competition's greatest icon: its anthem. Since 1992, first year of the competition, no other brand was ever authorized to make a campaign that changed the anthem in any way. This was only possible by a true insight, that promoted the competition's global importance, ressonating with the global audience of over 170 countries. Our strategy was to make the campaign about more than football: it was making it about what unites us. It was about overcoming the barriers that divide us.

Our campaign was all about inclusion: so we made sure no language would be left out of the anthem. After a deep research, we catalogued all players from the competition, and all their 74 countries. Considering all their official languages, we reached the number of 35, including romanian, portuguese, suali, japanese and chinese. So we invited singers from all the world to record many different versions of the anthem combining all these languages. These versions were customized according the matches that would play out. For example: if the match was between PSG x Bayern München, we aired a version of the anthem that combined the languages of both teams's players. If it was between Barcelona and Liverpool, it was a different version as well. All of them were available in Santander's brand channel.

For the first time, UEFA authorized a sponsor to reimagine its greatest symbol. And it raised Santander's level of association with the competition like never before in all the brand's years of sponsorship. The campaign was intended to be aired in one edition of the tournament, but it's already been confirmed to the second year in a row . For the first time in history, people from all the world could listen to the competition's classic anthem in their own languages, making they feel part of the event even more.