Frank Lampard Buys 16 Tickets For British Fans After Chance Meeting at New York City’s Training Ground

Frank Lampard dipped into his own pocket to treat a lucky group of fans to 20 tickets for New York City’s clash with Toronto after meeting them at the club’s training ground this week.

EXCLUSIVE By Daniel Caw – Lead Writer – @DannyCaw

The Englishman finally moved to the new MLS side after spending a season on loan with Manchester City, but was forced to wait for his debut after picking up a calf strain last week.

He admitted he was “hugely disappointed” to be missing the game at Yankee Stadium.

But not that Lampard lets that affect his personality off the pitch – as he made the day of some lucky British fans by spending almost $500 so they could watch their game with Toronto last night.

Megan Nicholson, 20, from Shetland in Scotland, is in New York alongside 20 other Brits coaching youngsters over the summer and posted about their chance meeting on Facebook, writing:

So when our new mate Frank said he’d get us tickets for the match we figured he got them for free, so we asked him for 20 tickets.

Turns out he only gets four complimentary ones so the big man just nipped online and bought us 16 more tickets off Ticketmaster. Can’t argue with that, what a bloody hero.

We spoke to Megan exclusively for TB and she told how he went above and beyond to help them out.

She said:

We had been on a tour of the New York City training ground and facilities when we spotted Frank Lampard and David Villa in the car park. They happily signed autographs and when Frank spotted our accents, he asked what we were out for. He was really chatty and more than happy to talk to us. One of the girls in our group cheekily asked if we could get tickets for the Toronto FC game, but he explained he only gets four complimentary tickets per game and there was 20 of us. He paused for a minute before telling us to wait in the car park for a minute while he went back inside.

After a moment or two, he came out and asked for one of our names before telling us he’d ordered 16 tickets through Ticketmaster in the ticket office. He explained he’d given the girl in the ticket office his card details and that we just had to pick them up before the game. We were all in shock and couldn’t thank him enough. He’s a lovely guy.

She added:

I told him I was a Falkirk fan, just to be funny really. But he was clued up and said he’d watched the Scottish Cup final. He said he thought we were really unlucky to lose.

New York City ended up drawing 4-4 with Toronto in a hugely entertaining clash at Yankee Stadium.

Italian star Sebastian Giovinco scored a sublime hat-trick for the visitors to add to Marco Delgado’s goal.

But David Villa hit back with a double before a Damien Parquis own goal and Patrick Mullins’ strike evened the game.