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A football supporter has taken his premier passion a step further than even the most fervent of fans – by changing his name to the GROUND of his beloved team!

Spurs super-fan Gary Mark Lane has changed his name by deed poll and is now known to the wider world as Gary WHITE HART Lane.

The hod carrier from Knaphill, Surrey, has been a Tottenham Hotspur fan for almost 40 years – and these days makes a 116-mile round trip to home games.

And now Gary's proved once and for all that Spurs is where the 'hart' is.

The 55 year old told the Surrey Advertiser: "I'd been going for so long and my surname was already Lane.

“And I like a bit of banter. I know a lot of people at Spurs, some of them with stalls up there.

"That’s what happens when you’ve been going for 40 years. When I tell people my full name on the phone they can crack up.

(Image: Julian Finney)

“But if it’s an Arsenal or Chelsea fan they can get the hump. And when I told my mum I’d changed it, she nearly fell over.”

But the footie funny also has a serious note – the death of Gary’s son Jake, at the age of three, was another reason for him changing his name as he never realised his dream of taking his youngest son to White Hart Lane.

When Gary, who was raised in London and whose father was a Fulham fan, started going to the ground in the 1970s, Spurs were in the old second division.

He was soon part of a group travelling to all the Tottenham matches they could, and his devotion to the club has seen him travel across Britain and Europe, going to Wembley cup finals and suffering countless highs and lows as Spurs have endured decades of mixed results on the pitch.

Gary has stayed loyal throughout, saying he would "never miss a game" in his single days.

And even if work, family and charity commitments mean he cannot go to White Hart Lane every week now, his dedication is written all over his home and body – literally.

As well as changing his name, he has changed that of his house to White Hart Lane, a blue Spurs cockerel sits proudly by his front door and Gary is covered in Tottenham tattoos – including in places only his wife Alison is alowed to see.