Thai Liverpool fans hold street parades for Premier League triumph
Jubilant Thai Liverpool fans have staged their own impromptu street parades to celebrate Arne Slot's men clinching the Premier League title, taking to the kingdom's roads with red banners and music blaring.
The Anfield club sealed their 20th top flight title with a 5-1 win over Tottenham on Sunday, delighting their legions of supporters in Thailand.
The team will hold an open-top bus parade round Liverpool in late May but Thai fans have got the party started already.
One group in Bangkok played victory songs on musical instruments as they paraded a replica Premier League trophy in a truck emblazoned with Liverpool's trophy honours on Monday, in a video viewed more than 400,000 times on X, formerly Twitter.
And in the town of Na San in southern Surat Thani province, dozens of fans decked out in red toured the streets in open trucks on Tuesday, waving huge club flags and playing "We Are The Champions" on speakers.
The event was organised by the local Liverpool fan club and lasted almost an hour before heavy rain brought it to a halt.
"We wanted to do more, but sadly it rained so hard," said Sanittiya Rakcharoen of the Surat Thani Liverpool fan club, and plans are afoot for a bigger parade next month.
"It was worth the wait," she told AFP of the title win, Liverpool's first in five years, recounting how she watched the Spurs match at a local bar with fellow fans.
Despite being in a relationship with a Manchester United fan, Sanittiya said football never interferes with their personal lives.
"We keep it separate and don’t let football disrupt us," she said.
Liverpool enjoy a huge following in Thailand, with shirts and logos seen everywhere from rich Bangkok neighbourhoods to remote rural areas.
The club has a Thai version of its official website, and its Thai-language Facebook page has more than 41 million followers.
Over the years, Sanittiya estimates she's spent at least $4,000 on Liverpool merchandise, including scarves and jerseys, many of which now decorate her car.
“It’s more than a club -- it's my life. I feel joy and sorrow… all because of Liverpool,” she told AFP.
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