Sport
Manchester City fan gets treble tattoo before Champions League final
We'd love to have been in the room to hear how many times the tattooist asked, 'are you absolutely sure you don't want to wait until AFTER game?'
We’ve seen plenty of tattoos gone wrong down the years and even more football fans getting ahead themselves, but it must have taken a special kind of confidence for this Manchester City fan to get the treble tattooed on his body before the Champions League final has even been played.
Man City may have taken one step closer to matching historic rivals Manchester United‘s achievement of winning the treble in 1999, lifting their fifth Premier League title in six years and adding yet another FA Cup to their trophy cabinet, but there’s still one massive game they need to win before they can boast the same.
The Blues take on Inter Milan in the Champions League final — just the second in their history — this weekend and have only ever won one continental trophy by beating Polish side Górnik Zabrze in the European Cup Winners’ Cup back in 1970.
Nevertheless, after yet another stellar domestic season and with two-time UCL winner Pep Guardiola at the helm, most fans, rivals and neutrals alike all think this is the year they’re going to lift their first Champions League — in fact, this man is certain of it.
The diehard City fan, simply known as Stuart on TikTok, shared multiple clips on his account on Tuesday, the first of which showed the treble tattoo in progress and has already had nearly 200,000 views in less than 24 hours.
Naturally, the comments underneath the videos are as you’d expect, with people remarking, “you’ve just made Inter win”, “he’s gonna regret that”, “RIP bro”, “pov: 2021” — the last CL final they qualified for and lost to Chelsea despite being heavy favourites — and so on.
However, responding to haters in the comments, Cityzen Stuart’s confidence looks to be unshakable, stating that it’s now “impossible” for them to lose and there’s “not a chance” Pep goes another yet without winning another Champions League.
Having already flown over to Turkey for the final in Istanbul this weekend, he shared a more recent video showing the tattoo in more detail, complete with full colour and shading.
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Football fans are often superstitious (it’s such an unpredictable sport that it’s hard not to be) but it’s fair to say a lot of people are now worried he might have jinxed it, not to mention every single Red hoping that he has. For his sake, he better hope the footballing gods don’t take this kind of stuff into account.
In fact, this isn’t the first time a City fan has gotten a little bit ahead of themselves and put money and ink where their mouth is, as our minds immediately go back to 2009 and the time a supporter got a Champions League winners tattoo for the following 2010/2011 season.
This year’s final kicks off at 8pm on Saturday, 10 June and City fans everywhere will be hoping to Pep and co. lift the Champions League trophy in the club’s history and win a historic treble in the process.
They are already going to go down as one of the best squads ever assembled but, for many, this could see them held up there as the greatest of all time. The question is, can they take that final step?
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Featured Image — @stuart1308 (via TikTok)/Comedy Central/UEFA
Sport
Manchester City release new ‘The Decade Collection’ celebrating 10 years of Pep Guardiola
Danny Jones
Manchester City and PUMA have just released a new clothing line celebrating 10 seasons of Pep Guardiola at the club.
Simply entitled ‘The Decade Collection’, the new PUMA range revolves entirely around Pep as he marks his 10th anniversary in charge of the Blues, focusing on minimalistic style.
Guardiola has always been a trendy bloke, often being highlighted for his fashion choices on the touchline – even some of the questionable ones…
But with a much plainer approach this time around, the Pep clothing collab
Debuting the lifestyle drop on Wednesday, 15 April, Man City wrote on social media, “Ten seasons on the touchline. Ten seasons of setting the standard.
“Introducing the Puma Football Decade Collection with the Pep Team – celebrating Pep’s ten seasons as our manager and inspired by memorable moments from his tenure at the Club.”
While it’s unclear how much (if any) of these new clothes the Catalan coach has helped design or had influence on, but given its exclusive nature, you can expect it to sell out pretty quickly.
They go on to add: “Created to honour a defining chapter that reshaped the club’s modern identity, this exclusive collection is available in limited quantities.
Starting at £30 for the cheapest item – a ‘P’ logo baseball cap – the most expensive part of the collection clocks in at £110: his special anniversary edition ‘Majesty Low Decade’ PUMA trainers.
You can see some more examples of what we’ve already seen him wearing, and what we’ll no doubt see him in pitchside very soon, down below.
https://x.com/ManCity/status/2044347944988516522?s=20
Obviously, City has plenty of other brand partnerships when it comes to both official sports apparel and more casual clothing, many of which we’ve already seen the 55-year-old football manager wear, but you can almost guarantee he’ll be donning them for the coming fixtures.
You can see Man City x PUMA x Pep Guardiola ‘Decade Collection’ in full HERE.
Speaking of which, up next for Pep and co is what could prove to be THE big twist in this year’s Premier League campaign, with his squad of serial winners taking on league leaders Arsenal at home.
Not only did the Gunners’ surprise loss to Bournemouth last weekend help City close the gap on the top spot, but with them refinding their form ahead of hosting the title hopefuls at the Etihad Stadium, it all looks to be shifting back in their favour at the moment.
With seven games left, and one in hand compared to Arsenal, do you see them beating Mikel Arteta’s side to another trophy?
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Featured Images — Manchester City Football Club (publicity pictures)
Sport
Sale Sharks announce signing of exciting new winger David Opoku-Fordjour
Danny Jones
Sale Sharks have revealed their latest bit of recruitment as they have announced an agreement to sign promising young winger, David Opoku-Fordjour.
The brother of existing Sharks player, Asher Opoku-Fordjour, David, is set to join Sale at the start of next Gallagher PREM season.
Sharing the news with their fans on social media, the Greater Manchester rugby union outfit is tipping the ‘exciting’ and very fast forward to achieve big things at the club.
As the older sibling of 21-year-old prop Asher (only slightly), they might be of a similar profile in some ways, but they are still two very unique talents with their own attributes.
The fellow Coventry-born prospect came through his local side’s youth academy, making over half a century of appearances for the Championship team.
He will now become the second member of the Opoku-Fordjour family, who are originally from Ghana, to play for Sale Sharks.
Already capped England star Asher is actually the youngest of the four Midlands-born brothers.
Meanwhile, David Opoku-Fordjour – still just 22 himself – will make his Premiership debut in the coming 2026/27 campaign, penning a one-year deal with an option of extending by another 12 months as part of his contract:
The youngster said in an official statement: “I know the levels at a PREM club will be much higher, but I’m really looking forward to playing and training with internationals every day.
“There are so many good wingers at the club – guys like Tom Roebuck and Arron Reed – and I just want to be a sponge and learn from them and develop as much as I can.”
“Asher and I are really close, and playing with him again will be brilliant. When I spoke to him, he just said that the environment at Sale is great and that I would really enjoy it. He said the club is full of good people, so I can’t wait to get started.”
Commenting on his arrival, Director of Rugby Alex Sanderson said, “There’s some real talent and potential in the Champ, and we think we’ve found one in David.
“He scores tries for fun, but there’s plenty more to his game, and we’re looking forward to seeing how he develops in this environment, learning and playing with the international wingers we’ve got.”
Looking forward to seeing him on the pitch, Sharks?
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Featured Images — FloRugby/Coventry RUFC (screenshots via YouTube)