Morten Thorsby: ‘’Football can save the planet and mankind’’
In 2015, the Norwegian footballer Morten Thorsby read the ‘’Keep it in the ground’’ poems in The Guardian. It was a series of 20 original poems by different authors who discussed climate change. These articles inspired Thorsby to take action against climate change. He persuaded SC Heerenveen, the club he was playing for at the time, to buy bicycles for all the players to ride from the training ground to the stadium. Fast-forward a couple of years and Thorsby founded We Play Green, a global non-profit foundation that uses the power of football to speed up the green shift.

Thorsby created the foundation after meeting with the Italian Environmental Minister Sergio Costa in 2020. Costa helped plant the seed to start this project. Thorsby also changed his kit number to number 2 as a symbol for the 2015 Paris Agreement which targets to keep global temperature increases below 2°C.
‘’The Green Shift is possible and urgently needed, but it is short on public support,’’ says Thorsby on the website of the European Union. ‘’I firmly believe that football can help save the planet and mankind since it is the world’s largest social phenomenon, and football players are the world’s most influential people.’’
Other footballers involved
Since its foundation, We Play Green has established a team of 17 professional footballers, including former Dutch international Siem de Jong, Adelaide United player Bart Vriends, and Inter Milan Women’s player Sofie Junge Pedersen. However, Thorsby is always looking for new recruits to add to the team and provides everyone who joins with education, training, and support to become climate and environmental advocates within their communities.
‘’With my organisation, I aim to create a movement that mobilises the 5 billion-strong football family, from grassroots to players, clubs to communities, businesses to institutions, and decision-makers. Together, we can be on the winning side of the most important game on the planet – making the Green Shift happen.’’
‘’Without the Green Shift, large areas of the earth will become inhabitable,’’ explains Thorsby on We Play Green’s website. ‘’Thus, billions of people need to migrate, wild animals will continue to die, food will get scarce, and economic and national security severely threatened.’’
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