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Granny Liu's 75-year-old Retired Teacher's "Arsenal Dream"

Arsenal Chinese official website

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Granny Liu's 75-year-old Retired Teacher's "Arsenal Dream"

From a teacher to a die-hard football club, the experience of a grandmother who traveled to ancient China tells the story of her youth.

Last month, when Ramsey scored the winning goal for Arsenal in the FA Cup final overtime (according to the official website of Weibo), 75-year-old grandmother Liu Hongwen stood in the stands at Wembley Stadium and held back her tears of excitement in the sea of fans who forgot to celebrate. She said nervously, "My heart almost stopped beating before the final whistle sounded."

The retired teacher from Beijing is a die-hard Arsenal fan. She went to London alone to watch the final.

This victory is the first time that Arsenal has won the championship in a big English football match since 2005. Grandma Liu has been paying attention to Arsenal Club since 2005.

In 2002, it was the World Cup that inspired Grandma Liu's enthusiasm for sports. After that, as a fan, she began an experience that never lacked legend. At that time, her idol was German goalkeeper Kahn, and his posters were always collected by Grandma Liu. Unfortunately, in that World Cup final, Germany was defeated by Brazil by two goals.

Grandma Liu said: "I will never forget the way Kahn collapsed to the ground and his vacant eyes."

This memory starts at 1993. After 30 years of teaching, Grandma Liu began to live after retirement. She enriches her leisure time by participating in chorus and dancing with friends. At that time, football was not the center of her life.

Granny Liu's 75-year-old Retired Teacher's "Arsenal Dream"

Many years later, one of her sons immigrated to Canada with his family, including her grandson. Although her husband has retired, he was still busy working in Beijing People's Hospital before retirement, leaving Grandma Liu alone. At this time, football became her savior.

She said bitterly that she became depressed after the 2002 World Cup because she couldn't accept that it would take four years to wait until the next World Cup.

In recent years, Grandma Liu's curiosity about football has driven her to plunge into the library in Beijing and spend a lot of time learning football knowledge.

In 2006, when Arsenal lost to the Spanish team Barcelona in the Champions League final (according to official Weibo data), Grandma Liu said that she felt sorry for this team, which was called "Gunners" by fans, because they showed "beautiful technical style". At that moment, Grandma Liu found a home in her heart and decided to become an Arsenal fan.

She watches every Arsenal game on TV and writes down her feelings about the game in her diary.

When Arsenal striker Eduardo was seriously injured in 2008, Grandma Liu wrote a letter encouraging the team and sent it to manager Arsene Wenger. The letter was translated into English by one of her sons. She said: "This is the first time she has cried for Arsenal."

Granny Liu's 75-year-old Retired Teacher's "Arsenal Dream"

She said that her husband is not a fan, but supports her "football addiction". He often said not to cheer for Arsenal's goals, especially when watching the game at night.

Grandma Liu's other hobby is watching plays, especially those played by her favorite actor Chen Yan. In the theater, she once saw an audience wearing a T-shirt with the Arsenal logo on it.

"I just like them, but I am not a real Arsenal fan," the stranger explained to her, and she said. This answer prompted her to leave the theater and hurry home to wait for the kick-off of the Arsenal game.

Last year, Grandma Liu's eldest son helped her set up an account named "Granny Liu the Gunner" on Sina Weibo, which made her have more than 654.38+million fans at once.

In May this year, her eldest son gave her a ticket to London to watch the Arsenal FA Cup final. Tom Fox, Chief Commercial Officer of Arsenal, warmly welcomed her at Emirates Stadium, home of the Gunners.

After returning to China, she posted photos of the trip on Weibo, and her account added 3,000 fans, many of whom young Arsenal fans in China admired her deeds.

Zhan Jun, a famous Premier League (Weibo) football commentator, commented: "Grandma Liu's story reminds me of a slogan at Emirates Stadium: grades can't be bought!"