The Darlington Street branch was reopened on Friday after undergoing refurbishments and the former Benfica man was on hand to help kick off celebrations.

As part of the event, supporters got to meet the former Portugal international and he drew a raffle in which travel money vouchers and Wolves memorabilia was won.

One lucky customer, Mark Grant from Lower Street, Tettenhall, won £1,000 in travel money.

Dimitriou Elena, from Jeremiah Road, Heath Town, won a signed shirt, and Adele Kelly, from Homefield Road, Codsall and Claire Wilkes, from Carlyle Road, Bushbury, won sign footballs. Proceeds from the raffle went to the local Acorns hospice.

Members from hospice and charity partner Acorns were also present at the event, represented by their mascot Alex Acorn, and collected spare foreign exchange coins from visitors to support the charity's work. Proceeds will still be collected in store.

over the next few days, following which, The Money Shop will match the total for Acorns.

Mr Pereira said: "I am very happy to be here today and Wolverhampton is a beautiful city."

Wolves fan Leanne Jones was chuffed to meet the ex-Athletico Madrid full back.

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The 21-year-old, from Ashmore Park, said: "I'm a big Wolves fan and so I was delighted to have the opportunity to meet Silvio and get his autograph. He was very down to earth and very polite as we had our photos taken with him. It was very exciting meeting someone from my local football team.

Lauren Newman, also 20 and from Ashmore Park, said: "I really enjoyed meeting Silvio. He was so nice and gave us his autograph. It was great to meet a player from our local team and it was so unexpected and exciting."

Caroline Walton, Chief Customer Insight Officer at The Money Shop and Dollar UK, said:

"We were thrilled to be joined by Wolves star Silvio Manuel Pereira for our long-awaited re-opening.

"We are very excited about the improvements we have made to The Money Shop Store in Wolverhampton, which include a rebranding and refit of the premises.

"We all spent a brilliant afternoon giving out Wolves merchandise to our lucky winners and collecting customers' spare foreign currency coins, left over from their holidays, for our charity partner Acorns – who sent their mascot Alex Acorn along to support!"