Large crowds of Taiwanese soccer fans savored what some said was “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to pay homage to the Premier League trophy and meet Ronny Johnsen and Quinton Fortune, two stars from the Manchester United treble-winning dynasty of the late 1990s.
In their two public appearances in Taipei yesterday, Johnsen and Fortune were surrounded by exuberant fans, most of them clad in the Premier League champions’ red jerseys, seeking autographs and pictures with the former Red Devils stars.
As two designated “football goodwill ambassadors,” Johnsen and Fortune were affable and happily obliged nearly all requests by Taiwanese United supporters at the events in front of the National Theater at CKS Memorial Hall and the plaza in front of Taipei 101.
Photo: Jason Pan, Taipei Times
“It was an amazing reception. We were greeted by hundreds of enthusiastic fans. I was quite surprised by the passion of the crowd; there were kids, grown-ups and all kinds of United supporters. It has been a fantastic experience for us here in Taipei,” Johnsen said.
The Norwegian centerback was at the heart of the Red Devils’ defense in partnership with Dutchman Jaap Stam during the memorable treble-winning season of 1999.
Fortune also made important contributions to title-winning campaigns through his career with Manchester United from 1999 to 2006.
Photo: Jason Pan, Taipei Times
When asked about Sir Alex Ferguson, Fortune said: “We were fortunate to have played for him. Ferguson drove his team to become winners. He keeps players on their toes, with his demands for consistency and getting the best performance out of the team for every match.”
The two stars were in Taiwan on Manchester United’s Asia tour of the Premier League championship trophy, which the Red Devils won last season under Ferguson for a record 20th time.
The crowd, estimated at about 500 fans, relished their up-close encounter with the trophy, with many of them touching the silverware.
A female fan at the event, who gave her name as “Fish,” said that she follows Manchester United “because their games are very exciting and thrilling to watch. Then I learned more about game tactics and the club’s history of winning championships. These kept me motivated to enjoy football with friends,” she said.
Another Red Devils fan called “Tatsu” said: “I’m so happy to meet the United players. It is a dream come true for me today, for this chance in my lifetime to see the Premier League championship trophy in person. It was a very special feeling to touch it.”
At the two media sessions in the afternoon, DHL Taiwan and Federal Tyres, the local sponsors of the Asia Trophy Tour, presented gifts of soccer balls to young players from Tienmu Elementary School and donations to help the local development of the game.
After Taipei, the players and the trophy are on their way to Seoul, South Korea, and then to three cities in China — Shanghai, Guangdong and Hong Kong.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier