Richmond’s Alix Tham could hardly believe his eyes on Saturday evening.
There he was, standing near the centre of the emerald green pitch inside glittering San Siro Stadium in Milan, Italy that was packed with more than 80,000 fans, within steps of soccer superstars Cristiano Rinaldo, Gareth Bale and the rest of the UEFA Champions League-winning Real Madrid team.
If he didn’t have the photos to remind himself, or one of his closest friends alongside, Tham, a huge soccer fan, would’ve needed to give himself a serious pinch.
“It was surreal,” said the 21-year-old R.C. Palmer grad, who managed to get the trip to Italy and playing field access as media covering the event after being named winner of a global contest sponsored by Japanese electronics giant Sony.
Tham, who works in administration in his father’s business, Sylvan Learning Centre, entered the contest almost on a whim. It appeared on a blog (GiveMeSport.com) he reads daily and to qualify for an entry all you had to do is answer who was the 2015 Champions League winner.
Being a fan of the beautiful game — his favourite club side is Liverpool and soccer idol is former Liverpool skipper Steven Gerrard — Tham knew the answer right away — Barcelona.
Tham typed in the answer and about three weeks ago he got an email telling him he’d won.
“When I opened the email I was surprised. But at the same time, I believed it because I actually signed up for the draw,” Tham told the News via email from Venice, where he was enjoying an extended vacation, seeing other parts of Italy following Saturday’s match.
Suspicious, Tham’s father, Jimmy, wanted to make sure it wasn’t a scam. So, he made sure it was legitimate by contacting the UK-based company organizing the contest. It checked out and the flight to Milan was booked. All that remained was who would be his travel partner, since the prize was for a pair of tickets.
“This was a difficult decision because I know there are friends who would have died to join me,” Tham said. “At the end, I decided to go with my closest friend (Elijah Payne), even though he is no major soccer fan.”
When the pair landed in Italy they were treated like royalty and got a chauffeured ride to the game.
Since the contest was a promotion for Sony’s new Xperia X cellphone, which was being released for sale on the day of the final, each received a new phone. They also donned blue pinnies identifying them as media covering the game and allowed access as the players arrived before kickoff, and afterwards when the trophy was awarded to Real Madrid’s team, which won 5-3 on penalties following a 1-1 tie with Athletico Madrid.
“My friend and I were speechless,” Tham said. “It was a once in a lifetime experience. We were standing literally no more than 10 feet away from the biggest superstars of football.
“We were pitch-side photographing them doing their warm up routine,” he added. “We could even go onto the centre of the field to photograph the winning team. That gave me goosebumps.
“I kept thinking, I’m standing on the same field as the superstars just played on.”
It’s a long way from suiting up on a local pitch for his old high school team, or the Richmond Rangers side he currently plays for.
“I broke my leg last year, so to be able to recover and get to experience what I did in Milan is very special for me,” Tham said.
While he and Payne plan to visit a few more sights in Italy during the remainder of this week before heading home on Sunday, Tham did have a fleeting thought about extending the trip a few more weeks to head to France and the Euro 2016 tournament.
“I had already extended the trip and couldn’t go for too much longer because I would be leaving too much work to my dad,” Tham said laughing. “But it would have been nice to swing by France. It did cross my mind.”
