A YOUNG IRISH fan is set to travel to the World Cup to watch his hero Georgios Samaras in action, after being invited to the tournament by the star himself.
Advertisement
11-year-old Celtic supporter Jay Beatty, who has Down’s syndrome, also encountered the Greek star when he was taken from the stands by him to join in the Scottish side’s league title celebrations earlier this year.
The pair also met during a Celtic game in Ireland, and their relationship was renewed after videos of Beatty cheering on Greece at this year’s World Cup gained traction online.
The Greek FA subsequently agreed to pay for the Armagh native and his family to travel to Brazil in order to watch Samaras and his teammates in action against Costa Rica in the last 16, after the country’s fans had launched a social media campaign to send the youngster to the World Cup.
The striker confirmed the news when speaking to reporters, saying: “This boy gives me so much strength, it’s incredible. There are no words. I feel his love so much. This love I feel, is also felt by many people in Greece. There’s a Facebook page for him to come to Brazil.
“This morning, in a talk I had with the head of the EPO, we said we will arrange his tickets to come and watch the match with Costa Rica. We will talk with the boy’s father, we’ll tell him about everything and we’ll see.”
Fair play to Georgios, he’s a busy man, what with doing that prank show on MTV, maintaining a professional football career, divorcing Demi Moore, playing at the world cup and winning the eurovision.
Lovely gesture from Samaras and the Greek people.. Just proves there are some good guys left in Football.. I know who I’ll be cheering for on Sunday Night.
There was also a lovely video of Samuel eto crying while hugging a fan,two big hearted guys,I’m following Greece now the way they play reminds me of Ireland.
Only just stopped crying. Restores my faith not just in footballers but in mankind generally. What a lovely thing to do and without a hint of cynicism or publicity seeking motives.
Sam Bennett finishes 11th in bunch sprint at sixth stage of Giro d'Italia
1 hr ago
1
FreeFixtures
Armagh-Dublin to be featured RTÉ game in Round 2 football fixtures
2 hrs ago
1
End game
IRFU to discontinue men's Sevens programme
14 May
45
Sign in or create a free account
To continue reading create a free account
Or sign into an existing account
Your Cookies. Your Choice.
Cookies help provide our news service while also enabling the advertising needed to fund this work.
We categorise cookies as Necessary, Performance (used to analyse the site performance) and Targeting (used to target advertising which helps us keep this service free).
We and our 187 partners store and access personal data, like browsing data or unique identifiers, on your device. Selecting Accept All enables tracking technologies to support the purposes shown under we and our partners process data to provide. If trackers are disabled, some content and ads you see may not be as relevant to you. You can resurface this menu to change your choices or withdraw consent at any time by clicking the Cookie Preferences link on the bottom of the webpage .Your choices will have effect within our Website. For more details, refer to our Privacy Policy.Privacy Policy
We and our vendors process data for the following purposes:
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
Cookies Preference Centre
We process your data to deliver content or advertisements and measure the delivery of such content or advertisements to extract insights about our website. We share this information with our partners on the basis of consent. You may exercise your right to consent, based on a specific purpose below or at a partner level in the link under each purpose. Some vendors may process your data based on their legitimate interests, which does not require your consent. You cannot object to tracking technologies placed to ensure security, prevent fraud, fix errors, or deliver and present advertising and content, and precise geolocation data and active scanning of device characteristics for identification may be used to support this purpose. This exception does not apply to targeted advertising. These choices will be signaled to our vendors participating in the Transparency and Consent Framework.
Manage Consent Preferences
Necessary Cookies
Always Active
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
Targeting Cookies
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
Functional Cookies
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
Performance Cookies
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Store and/or access information on a device 126 partners can use this purpose
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development 165 partners can use this purpose
Use limited data to select advertising 129 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Create profiles for personalised advertising 91 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Use profiles to select personalised advertising 92 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Create profiles to personalise content 44 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Use profiles to select personalised content 41 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Measure advertising performance 150 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Measure content performance 69 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources 88 partners can use this purpose
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Develop and improve services 95 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Use limited data to select content 40 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
Use precise geolocation data 56 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Actively scan device characteristics for identification 29 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Ensure security, prevent and detect fraud, and fix errors 107 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Deliver and present advertising and content 111 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Match and combine data from other data sources 79 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Link different devices 60 partners can use this feature
Always Active
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Identify devices based on information transmitted automatically 100 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
Save and communicate privacy choices 83 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
Gets plenty of criticism for on field displays… Absolutely nobody should question his kindness as a person.
What a wonderful, kind gesture that is!
Samaras … Tip of the cap to you sir. Lovely heartwarming Story of a Friday Morning
I’ve just read this story . Lovely gesture by Samaras and the Greeks to a very special little boy and his family . Sometimes nice guys do win .
Jaysus, welling up here. Thats a pretty classy move by Samaras and the Greek FA. Amazing!
I am not crying, have something in my eye….
Fair play to Georgios, he’s a busy man, what with doing that prank show on MTV, maintaining a professional football career, divorcing Demi Moore, playing at the world cup and winning the eurovision.
Once a Celt, always a Celt. Samaras bought into the spirit of the club, very beautiful thing to do. HH Sammy, we will miss you!
Lovely gesture from Samaras and the Greek people.. Just proves there are some good guys left in Football.. I know who I’ll be cheering for on Sunday Night.
“Good guy Samaras”
Hope Greece go on to win it. It’s a shame that Celtic are letting Samaras go.
Massive respect to Samaras, nice to see there is still some decent players in the game that realise how much it means to the fans
Fantastic. What a wonderful thing to do
There was also a lovely video of Samuel eto crying while hugging a fan,two big hearted guys,I’m following Greece now the way they play reminds me of Ireland.
Pure Class
What a shame cause I wanted Costa Rica to make the last 8 now I’m shouting for Greece..
Massive respect to samaras
Nice to hear stories like this when a lot of what we tend to hear about footballers is their not as admirable off field antics.
God damp onions…respect to Greece and samaras.. Feckin Merkel and the imf.. Enjoy it while we can..
Martin, was going to mock you over rising dam’p’ or something like that but you claimed a winner with the rest of the comment. 4 thumbs for you !
Heart warming….eh I seem to have something in my eye….
Wat a hero…. Sammy hail hail
For every gee-bag like like Terry, there’s a real man like Samaras. HH big lad.
Where can I get a Greek national flag?
Only just stopped crying. Restores my faith not just in footballers but in mankind generally. What a lovely thing to do and without a hint of cynicism or publicity seeking motives.