Thread by @benwhitelaw

Almost exactly a year ago, I made a request on this very site for #LUFC shirts to take back to Sierra Leone, where I’d recently moved.

Ahead of the new season and having moved back to the UK, it’s about time I gave my final update — and most of all, said some thank yous.

(1/12)

tl;dr: Not all football fans are like the ones we’ve seen in the news this summer. Many are brilliant and kind and generous and @LUFC, in my experience, seems to overindex in this type.

If you’re catching up, this is the backstory:

https://twitter.com/benwhitelaw/status/1294931079221194752

(2/12)

Anyway, in my last update in November, I’d dragged back hundreds of shirts to Freetown and had started to find new homes for the kit.

There was so many I had to make a spreadsheet to keep track of them all.

https://twitter.com/benwhitelaw/status/1330521091622785026

(3/12)

Emmanuel — the young lad I’d befriended — got a pristine Pablo Hernandez top and his football team got a set of white 32Red shirts.

One even randomly appeared in a pic posted by the legendary striker, @keikamara.

https://twitter.com/keikamara/status/1340955708624424960

It was a good start.

(4/12)

When I came home to see family at Xmas, there were dozens more waiting.

The postman laughed and my mum, naturally, was a bit miffed.

It was like the Harry Potter scene when the Hogwarts letters flood through the Dursley’s letterbox.

I had a real job on my hands.

(5/12)

I upped my game, taking shirts to Bureh, the beautiful beach where I often spent the weekend, and to Central Parade FC, a club with a maverick coach and reputation for blooding young players (sound familiar?).

Each and every shirt found a home (even the XXXL ones).

(6/12)

Just a few days before I left Freetown, I finally saw what I’d been searching for: a Leeds shirt!

It was a homemade 1999/2000 away shirt (light blue) with a sewn-on badge.

It disappeared before I could speak to the wearer. But it was unmistakably #LUFC.

(7/12)

Then, as I picked up my Covid test to fly home, something mad happened: the young guy dispensing the certificate clocked the smiling Marcelo Bielsa on my phone background and said "So you're a Leeds fan?" 🤯

The guy's #1 player? @dallas_stuart, of course.

#ALAW

(8/12)

All that’s left to say is a massive thanks to everyone who sent shirts, notes and money and those who retweeted, replied and told their mates.

Some folks didn’t leave their names but I’m grateful to them too. Every one of you made my task an absolute delight.

(9/12)

So, in no particular order, a massive cheers to Matthew, Ian M, Harry, John B, David K, Dan R, Jerry, Lee O, Luke L, Dave M, Matt C, Katie, Patrick T, Daniel D, David D, Margaret F, Jez, Cliff, John, Kate, Lauren, Tim, Diarmiud N, Chris and Matt R.

(10/12)

Apologies if I missed anyone. And sorry if you asked for pictures of your shirt with its new owner. Trust me when I say every one of the recipients had a Raphinha sized smile when I handed it over.

(11/12)

PS @MoscowhiteTSB and @EamoV1 kindly allowed me to write about it for the special summer edition of the @thesquareball, which is more beautiful than a Meslier drag-back and funnier than an Alioski celebration.

Buy one, if you can.
thesquareball.net/shop/2021-tsb-…

#MOT

(12/ends)