Have you met your sporting hero, did they meet up to your expectations?

red11 · 22 Apr 2006 at 21:14

I thought this would be an interesting thread, unfortunately I haven't met my sporting hero Roy Keane in person but I did pat his back as he was signing some autographs. Poor me had no paper or pen.

I was 15 at the time.

I know 3 guys who have met him in person, lucky gits. One was in a Dublin bar about 12 years ago, Keane was having a quiet drink alone, and my mate and his dad approached him to shake his hand and get an autograph, and he invited to sit with him and they sat and chatted about football with him for over an hour before Keanes wife/girlfriend picked him up. My mate said he was softly spoken, polite and really down to earth.

My other two mates met him at the Cliff (United's old training ground), he signed their shirts and was the last player to leave. He stayed for about an hr signing shirts and books when the other players couldn't be arsed.

R^T · 22 Apr 2006 at 21:45

he invited to sit with him and they sat and chatted about football with him for over an hour

Wow he sounds liek a nice guy.

Hats off to him.

Don't really have a specific favourite. But would be nice to meet a great sporting hero and have a pint with him/her

BaZ87 · 22 Apr 2006 at 21:54

Wouldn't say ive met my sporting hero but i hung around after a game to get a few players autographs before (liverpool players that is) and have to say was pretty suprised with some of the players.
Michael Owen barely even gave any recognition to the fans waiting, mainly to see him and suprisingly Harry Kewell seemed to be the friendliest player there; stood in the pouring rain talking to most fans while he signed autographs.

atpbx · 22 Apr 2006 at 22:25

BaZ87 said:
Wouldn't say ive met my sporting hero but i hung around after a game to get a few players autographs before (liverpool players that is) and have to say was pretty suprised with some of the players.
Michael Owen barely even gave any recognition to the fans waiting, mainly to see him and suprisingly Harry Kewell seemed to be the friendliest player there; stood in the pouring rain talking to most fans while he signed autographs.

Not a surprising thing to hear about "Englands" Micheal Owen, he does come over as a bit of personality Vacuum.

BaZ87 · 22 Apr 2006 at 23:11

atpbx said:
Not a surprising thing to hear about "Englands" Micheal Owen, he does come over as a bit of personality Vacuum.

One of the stewards actually said he will only sign an autograph when there's camera's around. Gary Mac was a really nice guy but you would expect that.

georges · 23 Apr 2006 at 00:40

Hell yah

On my 10th birthday

LUA LUA! When he played for Colchester United. He was my god then

Still one of my favourite players, even though he moved to Newcastle then onto Pompy who he pwns for. :3

I know, I looked like a freak.. I've become slightly better looking now(slightly

)

(sorry about quality.. its a phone photo of the press photo thing )

Col U did amazing bday parties. You had about 15 mates, played football and were trained on their training pitch before the match behind the stadium(astro). Then, had food, went and sat near the home goal, birthday guy was a mascot, the entire party of people took penaulties against eddie the eagle at half time etc. :|)
You would not believe how happy I was, although I had to ask for a "trade".
They had Carl Duguid out to take the pic with me, so I asked them to get Lua Lua out

Centre spot, before kick off (I have another with me and him pretending to start the game!

Division 2 pwnzors.

"andy" · 23 Apr 2006 at 01:34

well he was my hero then. possibly a worse hero than lua lua too

first ever boro match , watched uwe fuchs score a hat trick then stayed back and got my programme signed(wich is in my garage somewhere with a signed craig hignett poster LMAO) ,

vs bristol city 1995 , was 8 or 9 and hope i will always remember that afternoon

me dad says we where gutted the day we got promoted and bryan robson sent him back to germany : :mad:

el_dazza · 23 Apr 2006 at 03:05

Unfortunately, i'll never meet my sporting hero, as he died many years ago (Senna). I would love to meet a certain Mr Schumacher though, always been a big fan of his

Dtab · 23 Apr 2006 at 10:26

A bit the other way round for me

Ray Clemence became my sporting hero becouse i met him a couple of times when i was a kid - if that makes sense

It is also why i started supprting 'pool.

Could have been worse,cos i met Joe Corrigan a couple of times too

Celestial Caravan · 23 Apr 2006 at 10:33

I met my sporting hero at a dinner once. I was very dissapointed to see what an arrogant twonk he was when talking one-2-one or in a small group. I won't name him cos he died recently

Mr_L · 23 Apr 2006 at 11:16

Dtab said:
A bit the other way round for me
Ray Clemence became my sporting hero becouse i met him a couple of times when i was a kid - if that makes sense It is also why i started supprting 'pool.

You didn't meet him before Liverpool poached him from Scunthorpe United then? Otherwise you would be an Iron fan. Liverpool poached all their good players.

I've met quite a few football players for autographs and the like, but the only one I have had a chat with is Dion Dublin. He's a really nice fella and really, really tall. I'm about the same size but he's quite stocky, which made him look huge.

Dtab · 23 Apr 2006 at 12:19

Mr_L said:
You didn't meet him before Liverpool poached him from Scunthorpe United then? Otherwise you would be an Iron fan. Liverpool poached all their good players.

nah,i was trying to work out an approx time this morning,i was 8 or 9,puts it at 1970-71 ish.Was a bit diff too,in that he came to our house.We were next door to one of the 1st,if not the first,Volvo dealers in the country.We had a small holding and sold a bit of fruit and veg.When he brought his (wifes i think) car in he'd pop in to us as well

I wonder how many of todays superstars take their own cars in to the garage and do a bit of veg shopping on the way

Bodger Badger · 23 Apr 2006 at 12:27

I bumped into Steve Tilson in Reflex in Southend about 6 months ago. He's an absolute top bloke, and always takes time to talk to fans

Matallica · 23 Apr 2006 at 13:58

Tony Soprano said:
I know 3 guys who have met him in person, lucky gits. One was in a Dublin bar about 12 years ago, Keane was having a quiet drink alone,

Whats Keanes drink ? Guinness?

red11 · 23 Apr 2006 at 14:02

Matallica said:
Whats Keanes drink ? Guinness?

I don't think he was drinking Guinness when they approached him, but my mates dad bought himself and Keane a pint of the black stuff

I think he was drinking orange juice before that. And to think I was invited to go down to Dublin with them for the day but I was too busy planning a football match in the park. *shakes head in disbelief

Big Kev · 23 Apr 2006 at 14:04

Unfortunately, I have very little chance of meeting Sugar Ray Leonard or Larry Holmes, but I'd hope to bump into Tony Adams sometime.

SexyGreyFox · 24 Apr 2006 at 20:42

I've had the good fortune to speak to Sir Stanley Matthews on three occasions.
On the third time he asked for my youngest daughters name and address (she was with me) and about 4 days later a letter and a badge came through the door.
When he died and we were queuing up to sign the book of condolences my daughter was offered £200 by a Blackpool fan for the letter which she took with her.

maby66 · 24 Apr 2006 at 21:08

I've been lucky enough to meet a couple of sporting heroes through work/corporate entertainment...members of the '66 England team (Alan Ball, Martin Peters) and so on...
Used to go to Harlington before Chelsea moved to Cobham and closed the training sessions to the public, and had the opportunity to speak/greet with a fair few recent names....most kindly was Frank Lampard (and this was a couple of years ago, before he had made such an impact) - spent absolutely ages talking/signing/posing for photos, despite having walked off the training pitches after a vigourous session on a very hot day - when he eventually moved to go inside and get his well deserved shower, my two nephews (who had been getting JFH's autographs) realized they were going to miss him - my sister called after him (despite him being halfway to the changing room and he took the time to walk all the way back and pose for photos and sign books.
On the same day the legend that is GFZ spoke to me and my missus and agreed to pose for a picture with my baby daughter of 3 months - and was more concerned that he might be dirty/smelly from training than he had nutter fans trying to push a baby into his arms

The Running Man · 25 Apr 2006 at 20:44

met the Ukraine national team, about an hour before they kicked off with england in the 2nd tyo last game at the old wembley...

i met shevchenko, got my pic with him, shook his hand and got an autograph!

oleg luhzny was there, sergeiy rebrov etc was pretty cool!

unfortunately i dont know much ukranian so didnt speak much! (i was with the ukranian fans who travelled down from manchester via bob sopel travel to see the game!)

Mad old tory · 25 Apr 2006 at 21:49

Met Tom Graveney once in town, he owned a pub on the outskirts of cheltenham before I was born and never moved away. Not exactly my sporting hero, but a past great of my favourite sport (cricket) so pretty cool for me.