A football fan has become a social media sensation after pictures of him carrying 48 beers to his mates in the stands went viral.
According to the New Zealand Herald, Dutchman Christiaan Roetgering, 23, was watching his team FC Twente play Willem II at home - in the brewery-sponsored home ground known as the "The Grolsch Fortress". Mr Roetgering said he and his friends always assigned one of their group to get the beers during a match. Christiaan Roetgering, stacked five crates full of beer on top of one another as he made the precarious trip from the bar back to the stands.
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"This time it was my turn, and I didn't fancy having to keep going back and forth to the bar," he said. "So I decided to get everything in one visit." He said he had to negotiate some stairs and a gangway during his journey from the bar to the stands, but he still doesn't hold the record among his mates. "My friend Jochen has managed in the past to carry 50 beers in one go," he revealed.
According to Guinness World Records, a German called Michael Sturm holds the record for most beers carried 40 metres in one go. In 2017 during the Oktoberfest Brahma Extra in São Paulo, Brazil, he managed to carry 26 full beer steins – each containing about 2 pints.
Unfortunately, Christiaan’s exuberance at the bar was not matched by his team on the pitch – they drew 1-1 with rival’s Willem II with both teams having a player sent off. The young football fan's side took an early lead through Dimitris Limnios' sixth-minute strike but Che Nunnely equalised for the visitors midway through the first-half. But Twente's game plan was rocked just as the half-time beer queue was filling up as midfielder Ramiz Zerrouki was shown a second yellow card in the third minute of first-half injury time. Willem defender Derrick Kohn then received a red card for a second bookable offence of his own but neither side could find a winner before full-time.
Despite the action-packed game, others were equally distracted by the bar with another fan pictured carrying at least as many beers as Christian. Football fans in Holland are allowed to drink beer in their seats after the Dutch FA lifted a ban on fans enjoying alcohol when they are in view of the pitch in 2018.
There are unlikely to be similar scenes in the UK anytime soon as, unlike other sports like cricket and rugby, drinking alcohol is banned when football supporters are in view of the pitch. There have recently been calls to relax this rule, which has been in place since 1985, and a pilot may be held in lower league grounds imminently.