EPPING: Epping Town footballer trains with Ronaldo - Epping Forest Guardian
Epping Town footballer trains with Real Madrid's Christiano Ronaldo
12:09pm Monday 28th November 2011
A YOUNG football fan won the chance to live like Real Madrid superstar Christiano Ronaldo - then met the man himself.
Kieran Saunders, 20, of Centre Avenue, Epping, spent a whirlwind 48 hours enjoying five-star luxury in the Spanish capital after winning a competition run by Nike.
The trip culminated in a personal training session with the superstar striker, who has already scored 16 league goals this season.
Kieran, who plays in midfield for Epping Town, said: "He's one of my biggest idols in football. it was an opportunity I couldn't miss."
"It didn't seem real, things like that never happen to me so I tried not to get too excited."
Kieran answered a set of questions on Twitter in October and just days later he was informed he had won.
Within a fortnight Kieran was whisked off to Madrid and taken to a five star luxury hotel where he met eleven other competition winners from around the world.
From there he was taken to a training session and got his first experience of the intense media interest in Ronaldo and Real Madrid.
"It was pretty intense, it's not what I'm used to, but it was really enjoyable," he said.
During the trip the winners visited the launch of Ronaldo's latest footwear and were all photographed modelling the boots.
"I had heard that he was arrogant," Kieran said, "but he was a really nice person."
"He scored a couple of games in a match for the European Championships the night before we went out there, so I asked him what the atmosphere was like in the dressing room afterwards.
"He told me it was like nothing that he had ever experienced before."
Kieran said that the whole trip was the experience of a lifetime: "None of it felt real. The whole thing was out of this world," he added.
28 Nov, 2011
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Source: http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNG_NuOKigSG6WHFw6Aq36HSDI3ilA&url=http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/9388890.EPPING__Football_fan_meets_Ronaldo/
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