It's not every day you get to meet your sporting hero in the flesh, but one Kiwi football fan took his chance one step further.
Liverpool FC travelled to Australia for their 125th anniversary to play a post-season match against Sydney FC on Wednesday last week, a game won by Liverpool 3-0.
However for one fan, Hamish Mitchell from Christchurch, the trip across the ditch was made well worth it after a chance meeting.
Before they went to Australia, Mitchell, 21, reached out to a player he idolises, German-born goalkeeper Loris Karius, and put a deal on the table.
"I'm from New Zealand but I'm making the trip over to Australia to watch you guys play," he said in an Instagram message to the Liverpool goalkeeper.
"If we hang out and you write "LK1" on my leg, I'll get it tattooed. Deal?"
While in Sydney, Mitchell stumbled across the hotel where the team was staying.
Along with his father, mother and grandmother, Mitchell waited almost five hours outside the hotel to meet the stars from the English Premier League.
However he admits his mother and grandmother got tired of standing around and left.
"[After that] we got a text [from his mother] saying get around the back, now," he said.
"So I sprinted away from the hotel and that was the first guy I saw there, ol' mate [Loris] Karius."
Thanks to his mum, he got to meet his footballing hero.
Karius told Mitchell no one had put a deal like that on the table before, but was all too obliging and signed his arm.
Upon returning to New Zealand, Mitchell held up his end of the deal and had the autograph tattooed on his arm which caught the attention of Karius, who posted about it to his social media accounts.
The post on Instagram has been liked nearly 25,000 times and shared around the world.
Mitchell says it was a pretty special moment and something he won't forget.
"It was pretty surreal at first but then it kind of felt natural because we're both goalkeepers so we kind of had something to talk about," he says.
"The way I see it, is you can get an autograph from anyone but you can get it on a piece of paper or t-shirt but you might lose that,"
"But if I got it tattooed on then I know it's going to always be there."
Mitchell jokingly says he's now waiting for an invitation to visit England to see his favourite team play in person again.
Newshub.
