A soccer player who was banned for life from the Greek national team after celebrating a goal with a Nazi salute gained widespread notoriety online over the weekend. But perhaps we should have been paying a bit more attention to Tyrone Mings.
Mings is a defender for the English soccer team Ipswich Town FC, and he did one local fan a big solid before Saturday's match against Bolton Wanderers.
The story, which comes our way via the blog Digital Football, starts with a fan called Tris Monk, who tweeted a good luck message Mings' way but said he was too "skint" to make the match in person.
@tyronemings1 good luck today, wish i was there to watch, hopfully 3 points #skint— tris monk (@blutris89) March 16, 2013
"Skint," for the uninitiated, is English slang for broke. So Mings tweeted a simple question back Monk's way:
@blutris89 can u get to Portman road?— Tyrone Mings (@tyronemings1) March 16, 2013
Monk's reply:
@tyronemings1 yes mate— tris monk (@blutris89) March 16, 2013
To which Mings responded with a charitable offer:
@blutris89 left u 2 tickets under the name tris monk. Shouldn't miss a game cos u can't afford it #ITFC— Tyrone Mings (@tyronemings1) March 16, 2013
Monk, a father of two, attended the match later and called the interaction "amazing" in an interview with the BBC. For Mings, it was a pretty exemplary use of Twitter by a pro athlete. And better yet, the karma appeared to pay off -- Ipswich won the match 1-0.
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