Favourite famous fan story

[Silver Sean]

Been listening to a lot of Elvis Costello again recently, and remembering he's a big red I thought of his Istanbul story on wiki. I love it and thought I'd share. Anyone got any others?

Costello is a keen football fan, supporting Premier League football club Liverpool F.C. since childhood, and has appeared on Channel 4's Football Italia as a pundit.[56] On 25 May 2005, Costello was due to take the stage with his band at a gig in Norwich, which clashed with Liverpool appearing in the 2005 UEFA Champions League Final against AC Milan.[56] With Liverpool losing 3-0 at half time, Costello was due on stage and began warming up his voice in preparation for the gig, before deciding: "I might as well see the first few minutes of the second half."[56] With Liverpool staging a remarkable comeback (since dubbed the Miracle of Istanbul) by scoring three goals in six minutes and making it 3-3, Costello delayed his appearance on stage for over an hour.[56]With the game going to penalties, after much delay he had no choice but to take the stage, with Costello recalling: "I tried my best to keep my eyes from the TV screen over the bar at the back of the room but the words "Oh s***, he’s missed" might have accidentally crept into the lyrics of "Good Year for the Roses".[56] With Liverpool prevailing while he was on stage, an ecstatic Costello broke out into a performance of the club's anthem "You'll Never Walk Alone".[56]

 

[gkmacca]

From Alistair Taylor's book about working as Brian Epstein's PA, on the occasion when John Lennon was at Dublin Airport waiting to visit Dorinish, the island he'd just bought:

"The car was late and we had to wait at the airport. John chatted amiably to a few fellow travellers who were delighted to get the chance to meet a Beatle. 'I felt almost normal for a minute or two,' John said. 'They were Manchester United fans. I was just trying to convert them into supporting Liverpool'".

 

[tombrown]

While walking the streets of Athens hours before kick off in the 2007 Champions League final, Tory minister, Michael Howard, was accosted by a pair of drunken supporters who shouted "alright Michael", gave him a big hug & then confused him by launching into a tirade of anti tory insults.

O hang on ... that was me & my mate

 

[Spionkop69]

Colin Murray was in my flight to Istanbul. We were all waiting to in Manchester Airport to see if the flight actually existed at around 5am in the morning. Colin produces a football and about 100 of us started booting it about the terminal. Several members of staff tried to confiscate it and given their demeanour and attitude we assumed they were Man U. The game changed into, kick it at the staff we thought were Man U.

The ball never did get confiscated.

 

[Oncy]

Pretty sure Erik Meijer was in the fountain in Istanbul

 

[manwithnoname]

Pretty sure Erik Meijer was in the fountain in Istanbul

I'm pretty sure Pellegrini came into our box in Istanbul. A load of robbing scallies did, definitely, but they only nicked match paraphernalia.

I can't be 100% sure about any of this, because I'd been awake for about 2 days and had been drinking for about 24 hours. I was delirious to be honest.

I saw a bloke who was on that trip with me last week and he has a massive Plastic/ cardboard poster graphic up in his office that he must have pulled off a wall in the Ataturk and brought home on the plane. It's the size of a dinner table. He's a CEO. Got to love that commitment.