'Going to the training ground was the best day of my life,' he said.
An 11-year-old soccer fan with cerebral palsy got the surprise of his life when he met his favorite team.
Samuel, from Manchester, England, thought his dreams of playing soccer were never going to happen due to his condition, but his coach felt that he could do it and trained him as a goalkeeper.
Now the youngster plays by getting on his knees to block the balls from entering the net.
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“Having cerebral palsy is very hard, and playing football is a bit difficult but I don’t really take that as a big issue, I just get on with it,” the boy told the Manchester United Foundation in a video.
His best friend also helps him get around in school and at practice by pushing him in his wheelchair.
“Even though sometimes he needs help, he always tries to do it on his own, without other people,” his mate told the Foundation.
When his favorite team, Manchester United, found out about his devotion to the sport, they invited him to their training facility and he got to meet his heroes and play with the team.
“Going to the training ground was the best day of my life,” Samuel said.
His favorite player, Spanish goalkeeper David De Gea, took off his gloves, signed them and gave them to the boy.
“De Gea gave me his actual gloves, which was better than anything I have ever got,” he said.
Samuel later posed with United’s biggest names like World Cup winner Bastian Schweinsteiger, Swedish hero Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and French star Paul Pogba.
When Pogba and Ibrahimovic met the boy, they welcomed him with a massive hug and called him “the big man,” which made his smile even brighter.
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The duo, who both came to the team in the summer with record price tags, even joked around with Samuel by asking which one of the two players was “bigger.” Samuel said it was Pogba, which made the Frenchman smile.
The boy uses the team as inspiration, saying: “United show good emotions that they can keep going no matter what. So that’s what I say to myself: ‘Never, never, never give up.’ I’m in a wheelchair and I never give up. Just try. Try your hardest.”
