Manchester United have handed an indefinite ban to a thug who assaulted Frank Illet, the fan refusing to get his hair cut until the club win five games in a row.
Illet has garnered an enormous following on social media together with his hair-raising stunt, which he began over a yr ago when the Red Devils were within the grips of a miserable winless run under previous manager Erik ten Hag.
Providing regular updates to his Instagram followers under the handle ‘The United Strand’, Illet has pledged to ‘keep going until it’s done’ – and the ballsy challenge has yielded quite startling results.
United’s continued malaise firstly of Ruben Amorim’s reign has not only boosted the scale of Illet’s barnet, but in addition his follower count, which now stands on the cusp of 500,000.
Nevertheless, one less-than-impressed fan took issue with Illet’s antics after they got here nose to nose during United’s 2-1 victory over Chelsea at Old Trafford last month.
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A video which was widely shared on social media showed the supporter in query coming up behind and violently shaking Illet by his curly locks with some force within the concourse.
After receiving a right away backlash, the bald-headed individual proceeded to yell, ‘F*** off, I’ll do what I f***ing want!, before screaming, ‘He’s not a United f***ing fan so f*** off!’, with young children clearly visible within the vicinity.
Based on Mail Online, the fan has since been identified and banned from the Theatre of Dreams for an indefinite period.
A defiant Illet, who was flooded with messages of affection and support after the shocking footage went viral, has made it clear he has no intention of going back on his promise.
‘It was all the time and all the time might be to spread humour and positivity to United fans in a difficult time,’ he told the Manchester Evening News after the attack.
‘I actually have, in fact, been a Manchester United fan my entire life and my intention with this challenge was never to focus on Manchester United’s flaws.’
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He added: ‘It was all a bit weird to be honest. I’ll all the time attempt to concentrate on the positives and hope that this was only a one off.
‘I assumed he was just joking to begin with, but then he began yanking my hair and calling me an ‘attention in search of c**t’.
‘The entire day was stuffed with a whole bunch of positive interactions yesterday and 99 per cent of all the reactions to this challenge have been nice. But just a couple of people can destroy it!
‘Like I’ve said before, I never expected it to go on for therefore long, but I’m hopeful we are able to go on run soon and I, greater than most… want these wins to come back as soon as possible.’
Illet, now 382 days into the stunt, could have allowed himself to begin dreaming of that elusive trim on the weekend as United stunned bitter rivals Liverpool, in what was the club’s first triumph at Anfield since way back to 2016.
It was the primary time that Amorim had recorded back-to-back victories since taking charge of United, who now find themselves ninth within the Premier League table.
After the dramatic win on Merseyside, Illet even got a shoutout from United full-back Diogo Dalot, who told DAZN: ‘Let’s see. We hope that we may give him that haircut.
‘But we have now to go game by game. Obviously, we all know it is a very difficult league, we have now tough games.
‘And, in fact, we have now to go after that consistency that we have now lacked because we have now already shown prior to now that we are able to compete against any team on the planet.
‘We get to the massive games, we get to have good performances. Now it’s attempting to make it occur every game.
‘We now have the subsequent game at home and that’s what’s vital to us.’
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