Lima (AFP) – A popular Peruvian soap actress has offered an unusual incentive to encourage her country’s footballers to give their all to reach the Copa America final.
Unfancied Peru play champions Chile in the second semi-final in Porto Alegre on Wednesday and Stephanie Cayo has promised to kiss the player who wins the match for her country.
“We want to give a kiss to the Peru national team. I’m seriously thinking about offering a kiss (obviously with permission) to whoever is responsible for beating Chile on Wednesday,” the 31-year-old actress wrote on Twitter to her almost 800,000 followers.
That generated 8,000 likes and more than 7,000 comments.
Cayo is a soap actress and singer who is well-known in both Peru and Colombia.
She’s currently starring in the Netflix series “Club de Cuervos” (crows club.)
She added on Instagram that she was “offering my grain of sand” towards a Peru victory.
Peru have won the Copa America twice before in 1939 and 1975 and this is the third time in the last four editions that they have reached the semi-finals.
Chile have won the last two Copa editions, on home soil in 2015 and then the Centenario tournament in the United States a year later.
The semi-final winners will play either hosts Brazil or Argentina in Sunday’s final at the Maracana in Rio de Janeiro.
