Ipswich defender buys tickets for ‘skint fan’ on Twitter

Every so often you get some nice stories about football players. Too often the modern day player is portrayed as the prima-donna self absorbed athlete, so it was gratifying this weekend to see Ipswich defender Tyrone Mings show how not all footballers on Twitter are troublesome.

The 20 year old defender responded to a tweet from a fan after posting a tweet about heading to Ipswich’s Championship league game against Bolton. One Ipswich fan tweeted back wishing him luck saying:

“Good luck today, wish I was there to watch, hop[e]fully 3 points #skint”

Generously, the player tweeted back and asked the fan if he could make it to Portman Road (Ipswich Town FC stadium). When the fan responded that he could get there, the defender tweeted:

@blutris89 left u 2 tickets under the name tris monk. Shouldn’t miss a game cos u can’t afford it #ITFC

— Tyrone Mings (@tyronemings1) March 16, 2013

The astonishing act of loyalty and generosity to a fan was a very simple act of kindness, but has quickly catapulted Mings to Twitter stardom with his initial tweet being retweeted 4,512 times. On top of this the youngster has seen his profile rise in the media with stories from the BBC, The Sun, Metro and ITV all currently ranking higher than even Ipswich’s wikipedia page. Mings has had 9237 mentions as off Sunday on Twitter and as you can see from the graph from Topsy – will undoubtedly be something the young defender isn’t very used to!

This just goes to show how one good deed on Social Media can quickly go viral and catapult players into the media spotlight – raising their worth in the media, but most importantly – improving fan relations.