Melbourne Heart FC captain Fred is no stranger to Twitter, so the Club’s innovative move to display the player’s Twitter handles on the back of the team’s playing strip doesn’t surprise the Brazilian playmaker in the slightest.
Melbourne Heart FC captain Fred is no stranger to Twitter, so the Club-s innovative move to display the player-s Twitter handles on the back of the team’s playing strip doesn-t surprise the Brazilian playmaker in the slightest.
Heart will don a special fan-designed Third Jersey, complete with matching socks and shorts, for a one-off match against Perth Glory this Saturday 9 February and have encouraged fans to embrace digital interaction with their Heart stars in the lead-up to the match.
Instead of the player-s surnames, the strips will display the player’s Twitter ‘handles’, or Twitter account username.
In Fred-s case, his Twitter handle is @FreddaSilva_5, although the diminutive midfielder is unlikely to feature due to a quad strain sustained over a fortnight ago.
But Fred, who has sent out over 4,708 tweets via the social media platform, believes that increased interaction on Twitter gives players and fans the opportunity to engage on a unique level.
“Sometimes the fans send a good message to encourage us for the game,” Fred said.
Fred, who hails from Belo Horizonte in Brazil, uses the online platform to interact across international borders and in three different languages.
“I have to do it in Spanish, English and Portuguese [because] I have a lot of friends in America who follow me and they-re Spanish so I need to write in Spanish,” Fred said.
Although Fred-s following has already reached over 4,400, he hopes that he will attract some more fans this week after the Club revealed the initiative yesterday.
“Hopefully, it-s always good to get new followers and it-s good because they not only just follow me but follow all our players,” Fred said.
Fred, who describes himself as a friendly and family-oriented ‘tweeter’, was heartened earlier in the year when fans wished him a speedy recovery for his injury via messages sent through Twitter.
You can follow Fred on Twitter here: @FreddaSilva_5
