Fans celebrate Liverpool winning the Premier League title outside Anfield stadium in Liverpool. — AFP photo
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Liverpool Football Club (Liverpool FC) fans are painting their social media feeds in red as they celebrate the team’s English Premier League title win that ended a 30-year drought.
Sports podcast host and Liverpool FC fan, Nikhil Reuben Michael pointed out how social media highlights the club’s huge fan base in Malaysia as these local Kopites rejoice in their favourite team’s victory.
Even the Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin joined in the celebrations and congratulated the English football club along with its diehard supporters on his social media account.
“Tahniah buat semua penyokong Liverpool FC di Malaysia (Congratulations to all Liverpool FC fans in Malaysia),” he said in Facebook along with the poster reading “Tahniah Liverpool, Juara Liga Inggeris 2019/2020 (Congratulations Liverpool, 2019/2020 English Premier League Champions).”
Among the many fans in Malaysia are a couple of cabinet members well-known for their love of Liverpool FC, and they were also clearly over the moon with their team’s success.
Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Religious Affairs) Datuk Seri Dr Zulkifli Mohamad Al-Bakri reposted the prime minister’s message with the caption “Terima Kasih YAB PM! #YNWA (Thank you YAB PM! #YNWA)” while Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz posted “Congrats to Liverpool FC for winning the Premier League 2019/2020! The best team in Europe, the world, and now, England. #YNWA” with photos of his son and the team’s number 4 jersey bearing his name.
As a fan, Nikhil was also overjoyed as he managed to witness the golden moment.
“There’s a huge community of Liverpool fans here. With the Covid-19 pandemic, the only way fans can celebrate is though social media and I think this is one of the best things about social media as it brought the fan base together,” he said while speaking to Bernama yesterday.
Nikhil described the title win as a big relief for Liverpool fans after a three-decade hiatus and also a win that has given them an “insane amount of pride”.
“The fans all feel that it’s been a long 30-year wait and the clinching the title is a huge turning point,” he added.
Meanwhile, Liverpool was the top-trending hashtag on Twitter trend with its global fanbase posting and sharing stories of the title win.
User @eddymanan88 tweeted “Tahniah Liverpool. Welcome to the club,” along with the picture of previous EPL title-winning teams while on Facebook, user Renie Ubara posted “Remarkable WIN! A Champion, Always A Champion! For this season we WA = “Walk Alone” to the TOP”.
Some Facebook users even changed their profile and cover images to ones of the new English champions.
Even rival team fans also congratulated Liverpool, while at the same time adding witty and playful banter remarks.
Liverpool won the title after their nearest challengers, Manchester City were defeated by Chelsea 2-1 in a match late Thursday.
The Merseyside team, who are also reigning European champions and managed by German coach Jurgen Klopp, won by 86 points, now 23 points clear, with seven games of the Premier League season left. — Bernama