IT is every young football fan's dream to run out on the pitch with their favourite players - but for Partick Thistle supporter Saad Boutrid it was an extra special moment.
The five-year-old is the Glasgow team's newest fan thanks to the supporter-led campaign Jags For Good, which fundraised to provide season tickets for asylum seekers, refugees and new arrivals to the city.
Saad and his father, Mouadh Boutrid, 38, came to Glasgow three years ago from Algeria and were gifted season tickets through Central and West Integration Network, a charity working to support asylum seekers and refugees, migrant workers and black and minority ethnic people.
READ MORE: Fans Supporting Foodbanks unite Rangers and Celtic fans
Mouadh had been a huge football fan in his home city but since moving to Scotland had not found a new team for he and his son to support.
He said: "The first time we went to Firhill, Saad loved the atmosphere inside the stadium and he liked to watch them score.
"When we went to the game we just found ourselves really in love with Thistle now.
"I have been a football fan since I was a kid but when we moved here three years and a half ago I wasn't in to football here too much.
"Not until I was watching the Partick Thistle games."
Mouadh, who was a meteorologist in Algeria but works as a nursing assistant in Glasgow, got in touch with Jags For Good to thank volunteers for the present and say the team had won two new life-long supporters.
In return, Partick Thistle arranged for Saad to be a player mascot at last night's game and meet his hero Stevie Lawless.
READ MORE: The Scots porridge transforming lives in a Malawi refugee camp
Mouadh kept the surprise from Saad until they arrived at the football stadium where he was told he would be out on the pitch with his favourite team.
The family of two is settling into Scotland, Mouadh said. He added: "The people here are similar to in my previous city, they are so friendly.
"Saad has a Scottish accent now and I think having a football team will help us feel part of a community as Saad and I are moving forward with life.
"With football, if you have no connection to the team you have no feelings.
"But once someone has a real emotional connection to a team then they have a real feeling when their team is winning or losing.
"It is really something huge when you have a team, even when they are losing and they never win. Of course it is really sweet when they are winning but you still love them when they are losing."
READ MORE: The family story behind Kelvingrove's Mary Quant exhibition
Partick Thistle fans banded together to show football can be a force for good and, as well as raising money for charity and having food drives for foodbanks, they handed £17,500 worth of season tickets to charities in Glasgow's Maryhill.
Supporter-led Jags For Good was set up in April last year to generate funds for charities in and around the north of Glasgow and open up Firhill to more people.
Neil Cowan, one of the Thistle fans involved in Jags For Good, said: "We launched the season ticket fundraiser last year to help try and make Firhill open to everyone.
"The response from Thistle fans was incredible, and we're all so pleased that Saad and his dad have enjoyed coming to games this season with their tickets.
"The fact that the club have arranged for Saad to be a mascot is just brilliant, and sums up everything that Thistle are about.
"They're both part of the Thistle community now."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel