Olof Mellberg Leaves Aston Villa With Class

By: chris | May 13th, 2008

Too often footballers are portrayed as money grubbing whores whose only care is the thickness of their wallets or the number of places their faces are plastered. Unfortunately, that’s sometimes the case. So it’s refreshing to hear stories of the players giving back. Such was the case last weekend, when Olof Mellberg, participating in his final game with Aston Villa before leaving for Juventus this summer, had AV kits designed to thank the fans for their support, and then personally signed them for the entire contingent who’d traveled to West Ham for their final game of the season.

The shirt, as you can see in the pic, said “Mellberg Thanks 4 Your Support”, with 4 being his uniform number at Villa. An appropriate message.

The Swedish mountain man spent over £50,000 for the 3,200 shirts and who knows how many man hours signing those puppies, which is probably the most impressive part. Must’ve had a cramp or two after signing that many jerseys.

Mellberg had some nice words for the fans of his now former club:

“I almost forgot my own shirt with all that happened but I think it will be nice to keep it for myself as this was such a special game for me.

“It was my own idea to give the supporters the shirts. It was an unusual situation for me because I knew so far in advance that I was leaving at the end of the season.

“During the last few months so many fans have asked me for a signed shirt and so I thought it would be a good idea.

“I would have liked to have done it for my last home game last weekend but I thought 45,000 shirts might be a bit too costly!

“I also wanted to do something nice particularly for the away fans because they have supported us and me throughout the year and they have been fantastic this season.”

“I wouldn’t be here, making the money I have from football if it was not for those supporters,” he said. “The money was not an issue. I have always said I have been trying to repay the fans’ support by performing for them on the pitch and always giving 100 per cent and I think that is what fans appreciate more than anything.

“This was also a way for me to say ‘thank you’ in a different way on my final game.”

(Damn straight about the home crowd proving too costly. It would’ve cost roughly £1m to outfit the 45,000.)

A class move from a class player.