Football fantasy comes true

Date: 20 September 2006

ARSENAL striker Thierry Henry has helped a soccer mad schoolboy win a fantasy football competition and a dream trip to Europe.

Tom Parkes, from Eccles, took his team to the top of the Mitchell Charlesworth fantasy football league to scoop the top prize – a weekend away - which he handed to his parents.

His team, called ‘what can you do in six minutes’, was named after Liverpool Football Club’s dramatic Champion’s League final victory in Istanbul last year.

The 14-year-old Liverpool fan came first out of 178 teams which entered the annual competition run by the North West based Chartered Accountants and business advisors for staff, contacts and clients.

Tom was introduced to the league by his uncle, Graeme Freeman, who works for Venture Housing Association, a client of Mitchell Charlesworth.

Graeme said: “I received a flyer at work about the fantasy football league and because Tom is such a big football fan I thought we should both enter. Unfortunately, my team came 161st so to be beaten by a 14-year-old was not good!”

Tom, a pupil at St Patrick’s High School in Eccles, won two flights to a European destination, two nights accommodation and two tickets to a match, which will be enjoyed by his mum and dad, Angela and John.

He said: “I was really pleased I entered and I was delighted to win something for a change. Half way through the season I said to my mum and dad that if I won the league I would send them away for a nice weekend and that’s what I’m going to do.

“My favourite player is John Arne Risse but Thierry Henry was the best player in my fantasy football team and when he scored a hat-trick on the last day of the season I knew I had won.”

Mitchell Charlesworth partner, Paul Booth, added: “Once again the fantasy football league has been a great success. Tom took part in the league like a true professional. He played the game extremely well and was canny with his transfers to win the league 46 points clear of his rivals – a feat any Premiership manager would be proud of!”

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