Liverpool FC fans are known worldwide for their dedication to the team, but very few can match the devotion shown by Jungyu Lee, who cycled all the way from South Korea to Anfield.
He undertook an epic journey of 17,000 km just to see his favourite team’s stadium up close… but he couldn’t get a ticket to see Liverpool play Chelsea this week and had to watch the match in a pub.
The Seoul native had cycled through 12 countries before reaching the UK, including China, Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands.
After the club heard about Jungyu’s effort, they offered him a tour of the stadium and a ticket to the Tottenham game next week, so he will get to see Liverpool play after all.
The decision to cycle here rather than fly over was made because Jungyu wants to be an assistant football coach and hoped to use his time cycling to meet people and get as much advice on football coaching as possible.
He said: “I want to study here, and if I have the opportunity I want to start my career here. On my way I visited three different professional football clubs in Russia, one in Estonia and three in Germany picking up advice and information for me to achieve my dream.
I hope my story might help me to make contact with the right people at Liverpool FC to see if I can train as an assistant coach and hopefully make some useful contacts in the football industry.”
He said he found some of the more than 200-day journey difficult, particularly on the Siberian freeway as the road conditions were not good.
Twitter: BBC Radio 5 Live
‘You’ll never ride alone?’
Well one @LFC fan has – 10,000 miles from South Korea to Anfield! pic.twitter.com/rt7MC03hdI
— BBC Radio 5 live (@bbc5live) February 1, 2017
After peddling across thousands the world to Merseyside, Mr Lee said: “It was worth it. I got to see Anfield and it has given me an opportunity to help my dreams come true.”
He told JMU Journalism he has seen Liverpool play before and, in fact, met several of the players four years ago, including Xabi Alonso, who is one of his all-time favourites, alongside Steven Gerrard.
The 24-year-old said: “I think it’ll be quite hard to do another journey like this again. I want to stay here and study and train as soon as I can. I like Liverpool FC and the Beatles as well – this city is for me.”
Facebook: BBC North West Tonight