Jan Molby, a former Liverpool midfielder, was a big name in the 1980s. However, he has since retired. “disappeared off the face of the earth in Britain”Now, he is the star of a viral social-media hit.
The Dane, now 59, won three league titles and two FA Cups in his 12-year Anfield career. He is now a pundit for Danish TV, but was thrust back into the spotlight by Milo McCabe’s creation.
McCabe, whose mother is from Liverpool – the city in which he went to university – posts clips of his 1930s-inspired character Troy Hawke greeting surprised shoppers outside high-street stores and was even drafted in to welcome Manchester City’s players back to pre-season training.
He advises Kevin De Bruyne in this Twitter clip “Any doubts just ask yourself, what would Jan Molby do?”This tweet has been viewed more than 3.1 million time on Twitter. It also spawned a birthday card and a T-shirt that are being sold to raise money for Liverpool charity An Hour for Others.
Molby finds the whole affair amusing but slightly bizarre.
“A few weeks ago, someone sent me a video saying, ‘Have you seen this?’ as I’m not active on social media,”According to him, the PA news agency was informed.
“I watched it as I thought, ‘Bizarre’. It is a bizarre decision in many ways to use me in this, I’m not sure what his connection is to me – I assume he’s a Liverpool fan.
“It’s a bit of harmless fun. Even for me it’s almost a whole new generation of people who have become aware of Jan Molby.
“To a certain extent I’ve disappeared off the face of the earth in Britain because I work in Danish TV.”
The cards from @CleverFerry have raised a total of £468 to be split between @anhourforothers and @SFoodbanks and th… https://t.co/fmWktpVFHM
— Troy Hawke (@Troy Hawke)
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Molby, who has received an invitation to attend one of McCabe’s shows, added: “A lot of people might know the name but they won’t know what I look like but what I get most is people saying, ‘What would Jan Molby do?’
“I’ve got a 35-year-old son and a 29-year-old daughter and they think it’s absolutely amazing.
“You never quite know with these sort of things that appear on social media how it is going to be accepted but I see it as a positive and I think most people view it as a positive.”