An England fan has told how he struck an international footballer with a paper plane 100 yards away on the Wembley pitch.
Blair Valentine, from Horsham, sent a huge section of the 80,000-strong crowd into a frenzy when he threw a paper plane from high up in the stadium and struck a Peruvian player in their match against England.
And the 22-year-old has vowed never to throw a plastic aeroplane again after it hit defender Hansell Riojas during the international friendly on Friday night.
He said: “I don’t really remember actually throwing it as such, but I can remember seeing it sailing through the air.
“It took a kick just as it got down towards the pitch to help it go that bit further and then it almost took a right-hand turn before hitting the guy square in the side of the head – it was perfect.
“The noise was incredible, some were saying it was louder than when England scored, which is nuts because I went crazy when Daniel Sturridge scored – it was a screamer.”
The video of Blair’s wonder shot has gone viral on YouTube, as yesterday afternoon it neared 3 million views.
Blair constructed the plane from a folded up “noisemaker” given out to fans to clap against their hands during the game.
He added: “I’m not a paper plane enthusiast or anything like that, I just used to do them at school like everybody else.
“I saw that everyone else was throwing them, it was about 80 minutes into the game and I had a spare laminated ‘noisemaker’, so I made one.
“It took me about a minute to make and then there was a countdown so I threw it the same time as everyone else, I had no idea anybody was filming me.
“The first I knew about it was when someone tapped my cousin on the shoulder to say that a woman had captured it all on video.
“She took my name and by the time I first saw the video on Saturday morning it already had a couple of hundred thousand views.
“I’m a huge England fan, despite all the pain, and me and my mates hadn’t been to Wembley together so even if I hadn’t have thrown the plane I would have still had a great day.
“But it did make for a brilliant night.”
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