Entertainment
Strictly Come Dancing star and Arsenal legend Tony Adams ‘overwhelmed’ after 10-year-old fan pays tribute to him in best way possible-Sabrina Barr-Entertainment – Metro
‘I’m overwhelmed with it all really. It’s lovely,’ Tony said of the fan support.
Tony and Katya were all smiles during their fun-filled Charleston on Saturday night (Picture: BBC/Guy Levy/PA)
Strictly Come Dancing star and Arsenal legend Tony Adams has described how ‘overwhelmed’ he feels by the support he’s received, with a young budding footballer paying tribute to him in an iconic way.
Last night, Tony and his professional dance partner Katya Jones delivered bundles of fun with their jolly Charleston for the second week of the competition, although he landed joint bottom of the leaderboard with a score of 22 out of 40 from the judges.
This followed last week’s Tango, which saw the former England captain pay homage to his 19-year career at Arsenal, donning the team’s red kit and descending from the ceiling on a gold cannon, to represent the London side’s emblem.
While speaking to Metro.co.uk ahead of week two, Tony expressed how ‘emotional’ he’d become from the outpouring of support he’s received from viewers across the UK, becoming ‘teary’ as he emphasised how thankful he was.
He also revealed a story he’d heard about a young boy who decided to recreate the 55-year-old’s viral Granada training dance, which Katya made sure to include in their first routine last week.
‘A really sweet fan wrote in and said that her 10-year-old son scored a goal on the Sunday [last week] and ran over to the corner flag and did this, did the dance,’ he said. ‘I’m overwhelmed with it all really. It’s lovely.’
The duo painted the dancefloor red in week one (Picture: Guy Levy/BBC/PA)
Tony also spoke about his past struggles with alcoholism – having celebrated 25 years of sobriety last year – as he talked about how he no longer ‘suppresses’ his emotions when receiving love from fans.
After Katya, 33, noted how ‘overwhelmed’ Tony said he was during week one following ‘words of encouragement’ from viewers, he recalled how ‘emotional’ he felt on the Sunday and Monday after the launch weekend.
Tony played for Arsenal for 19 years (Picture: Gary M.Prior/Allsport/Getty Images)
‘I never could feel it. I couldn’t feel any feelings, I suppressed them with alcohol and stuff. But as I’ve come to and in this world, it took me a long time to receive love and to be… There’s 200 great comments and you get one person saying “you’re an idiot”, I’m like, “I’m rubbish!” But I just started to go actually, I felt a little bit overwhelmed with the outpouring of “good for you”. I’m getting a little bit teary now,’ he said.
Tony shared how glad he is that during week one of Strictly 2022, Sporting Chance – a sports mental health charity that he founded – saw a spike in calls to their helpline.
The organisation was set up by the football star in 2000, providing current and former professional athletes with mental health and emotional health support.
The Strictly Come Dancing results show airs at 7.15pm tonight on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
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