Leeds fan who travelled from Detroit to watch youth team gets VIP treatment

An American Leeds fan travelled all the way from Detroit to watch their youth team play after the two Premier League games he had planned to watch were postponed.

Chris Garcia, 26, booked his trip from Michigan to the UK – more than 3,500 miles – back in November with the intention of taking in Leeds’ home game against Chelsea and their trip to Crystal Palace as he stayed with his friend and fellow fan Daniel Deacon in London.

But the Chelsea game, initially scheduled for last weekend, was postponed because of the west London club’s participation in the FA Cup semi-finals and Saturday’s game at Selhurst Park was shunted back to Monday night for the sake of the TV schedules.

It left Mr Garcia, and friend Akshaay Ramanujam who flew from Chicago, with the prospect of flying thousands of miles and not seeing their beloved Leeds play.

But instead of cancelling the trip they decided instead to go and see Leeds’ Under-23 side take on their counterparts from Manchester City in the Premier League 2.

And after a tweet about his journey went viral, he and his friends even got given VIP status by the club as he was invited to watch the game from the directors’ box and got the chance to meet Leeds manager – and fellow American – Jesse Marsch.

“That was extraordinary that they even offered to to host us like that,” Mr Garcia told the PA news agency.

“Yeah, I made a long trip over here but I wasn’t expecting anything like that, anything at all.

Made the 7+ hour flight from Detroit and am now making the 4 hour drive from London to Leeds to watch the @LUFC U23s play. Sky Sports may have bottled the Palace match for me, but I still need my Leeds United fix. @PhilHay_ @andrearadri @lufctrust @GrahamSmyth pic.twitter.com/IYQrKRcYqY

— Chris