SoccerTabloid Fodder

Turns Out Viggo Mortensen Likes Sports As Much As We Do

It can be difficult to remember that celebrities are people too, with passions for things outside of pretending to be other people or looking sexy or being rich. That’s what makes this story of Viggo Mortensen almost getting thrown out of an airport so cool.

Along with kicking all sorts of fictional ass, Mortensen also writes a column on his favorite soccer team, Club Atlético San Lorenzo de Almagro. This Buenos Aires-based squad was facing Newells in an important match on Monday, and having to wait in the Dulles airport in Washington wasn’t going to stop Mortensen from watching said match.

Here’s how the end of the game unfolded, in Mortensen’s own words from his San Lorenzo blog:

“I screamed GOAAAAAAL with all my soul, and started jumping around the place like a frightened dear among the passengers and their suitcases,” he wrote. People can’t understand why am I screaming “PIPI!” [a player’s nickname] over and over again, and whether it’s because I’ve pissed myself or maybe I got hurt someway.”
…
“In the last extra 4 minutes added by the referee, two police men grab me and take me away from the computer, saying ‘Sir, what is WRONG with you???’ The cops ask for my passport and boarding pass, they ask me lots of questions. I tell them that it’s OK, that I’m sorry, that I’m watching a soccer match and my team has just scored a very important goal and the match is about to end. And while they’re asking me all these things and revise my papers all I’m trying to do is to look over their shoulders at the laptop screen, to see if the match ended with a 3 – 2 score.”

The Argentinian-born Mortensen managed to make his flight, which is good to hear. It would be a shame to see a man so passionate about his hometown team being kicked out of an airport for things like “screaming loudly” and “scaring fellow passengers.”

But in all likelihood, Mortensen did the world a great service. Any little boy or girl who saw Mortensen acting that foolish probably said to themselves, “That looks like fun. I want to watch some sports, too.” And thus, another generation of sports fans was born.

h/t Deadpsin