Julia Roberts gushed while talking about her love for Manchester United at the weekend – look away, Pep Guardiola!
The Pretty Woman star has been open about her long-standing love for the Red Devils for years and even visited Old Trafford back in November 2016 to watch the side take on West Ham United.
Roberts has also taken the opportunity to see her favourite team when they visited the United States; she attended two training sessions during the Reds’ previous trips to America in 2017 and 2018.
Now that Erik ten Hag and his men have jetted over the States for this year’s pre-season fixtures, the American was granted another chance to attend a game – she visited MetLife Stadium in New Jersey to watch United face Arsenal on Saturday night.
Luckily, the players put on a show for the Academy Award winner; they saw out a 2-0 victory and overturned the Gunners in a post-match penalty shootout to kickstart their tour in style.
MUTV talk United with Julia Roberts
At half-time, Roberts caught up with MUTV for a chat.
Q. “Julia, great to see you again as always. How excited are you to be seeing the team in America again?”
A. “Well, I was excited, I couldn’t go to sleep last night! And now we’re up two-nil, so it’s great.”
Q. “What did you think of that first half?”
A. “It was really exciting! I mean, I sort of forgot how untethered I become watching them play, it’s just so fun.”
Q. “And how much are you looking forward to meeting our manager Erik ten Hag and seeing some familiar faces of the players you’ve met before?”
A. “So excited. I mean they’re so, sort of, part of our family’s history of being avid sports lovers. And now the kids have grown up, they were all tiny when we first met everybody, so it’ll be great to see some people that we know and to meet some of the new players.”
Q. “What does it mean to you and your family to be part of the Manchester United family?”
A. “Well, I love that you’re considering us part of the family, that makes us feel really, really good. It’s such a great moment for sports with the women’s World Cup happening right now and America’s doing so well which is exciting, we’ve just had Wimbledon [which was] great and the Tour de France. I mean, it’s really a great moment to celebrate this kind of community because it’s hard to find that sense of joy in groups right now so this is where we get it.”
Q. “We’ll see you at Old Trafford soon, hopefully?”
A. “Oh yes, oh yes!”
To me, she’s still just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to score goals.