The Man City fan who saved for three years to make 22-hour dream trip come true

Regular commuters on the tram to Ashton got a shock a few weeks ago as they approached the Etihad.

As most were looking at their phones to pass the time, one man could not help but yell with excitement as his eyes came across the stadium that he only ever thought he would see on Google Earth. Menzi Percy Khuzwayo already felt his 14,000-km, 22-hour journey to see his beloved Manchester City was worth it from that moment, and things got even better over the two weeks that followed.

Menzi's love for City goes back not to a significant moment in their history but a key one in his: as a teenager, having watched the 2010 World Cup and adored David Silva in the winning Spain team, the software developer finally found enough money to be able to watch European football. If that wasn't enough, a year later City signed a player who shared a name with what one of his friends was known as - [Edin] Dzeko - and the rest was history.

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From then on, Menzi has followed City from afar, watching any game he could afford on TV and keeping up to date any way he could through social media. They aren't the only team he likes - there is Barcelona in La Liga, Juventus in Serie A - but as far as the Premier League goes it has always been City because of Silva.

Supporting a football club comes in many forms and City's core fanbase is traditionally working-class, local and loyal; despite the ever-increasing cost of living in the UK, there are thousands of Blues who will not have thought twice about paying out on a second trip to Madrid in a few weeks after Real followed Atletico in the Champions League.

Much has been made of the importance of fans in football after