Ange Postecoglou has talked of his joy in meeting Owen Bright and a number of other Tottenham fans amid the club’s support for Down Syndrome Awareness Week.
A group of young people with Down Syndrome were invited to the club’s training ground along with their families to watch Spurs players take part in a training session on Wednesday.
The Tottenham players wore a range of colourful mismatched socks, provided by Nike, to show their support for the #LotsOfSocks campaign, which embraces the fact that no two people are the same regardless of the number of chromosomes they have. Individuals born with Down’s syndrome typically have three copies of chromosome 21 instead of two, with mismatched socks the perfect way to illustrate no two people are the same ahead of World Down Syndrome Day on March 21.
Postecoglou met the group of young people with Down’s syndrome and got the chance to see Spurs fan Bright again, who stole the show at the club’s Fans Forum event in September with a question to the Tottenham boss.
Bright greeted Postecoglou with a big hug before the Australian coach showed the young Tottenham fan a picture of the pair from the Fans Forum event, which took pride of place in his manager’s office at the training ground in Enfield.
The young fans, who are members of Tottenham’s official disabled supporters’ association SpursAbility, also got to meet players from the men and women’s teams.
Asked on Friday if providing joy to fans was one of the best parts of his job, Postecoglou replied: “Yes it is, but it is also reciprocal.
“I get a lot of joy out of it too, mate.
“It is not every day you walk out to training and someone runs up to give you a hug. It’s not the usual greeting I get!
“And it wasn’t just Owen. There were quite a few of his friends there and I walked out and saw a bunch of Spurs supporters buzzing. There is no better feeling.
“As much as we understand particularly the players, they are their heroes and the joy they give them, we get equal joy out of it because it’s such a fantastic feeling to see people who are passionate about their football club and how much joy it gives them.
Source: AAP