Arsenal soccer fan chases down team bus, running for 5K through streets of Hanoi

You never know when your running skills will come in handy. A fan of the British soccer club, Arsenal, chased the team bus for 5K through the streets of Hanoi, Vietnam – at a very quick pace – and was rewarded for his efforts with an invitation to board the bus and pose for photos with the players.

Arsenal is doing a tour of Asia and after their various stops, players told the Daily Mail that locals on bikes often try to chase their bus down. But one man who thoroughly impressed the team members was on foot, doggedly keeping up with the bus at a reported 3-minutes-per-kilometre pace (surely an exaggeration, but it did look like a good tempo) for almost 5K, despite a few run-ins with trees and lampposts along the route.

Once they saw how fast the fan was running, the Arsenal players began chanting, “Sign him up! Sign him up!”

Striker Olivier Giroud filmed the man’s run on his phone and it was added to the club’s YouTube site.

Dubbed “The Running Man” by the Arsenal players, the man eventually hitched a lift on the back of a motorbike. He was later allowed to board the bus, where players signed his shirt and admired the runner’s six-pack abs.