A 9-year-old girl from Dublin has been named the winner of Manchester City Football Club's first ever design a jersey competition.
Lucy Beth Duffy, from Beaumont, was one of 1,000 people from around the world who entered the Premier League team's design-a-kit competition, which was launched last May.
Fans were asked to download a template and colour in a design. The entries were then cut down to a shortlist of four, before Lucy Beth was crowned the winner.
For the competition, Puma produced a limited edition version of her shirt with her name on the back. She also received a shirt signed by player Sergio Aguero and a framed image of her entry.
An avid Manchester City supporter, Lucy Beth said she was “ chuffed” to have won the competition.
“I’ve been a City fan all my life. My first memory is Man City started the game and they scored a goal and the other team didn’t even touch the ball. Growing up in house full of city fans is crazy, especially on match day,” she said in a video message after she won.
“My favourite player is Sergio Aguero because he scores lots of goals.”
She decided to enter the competition because she loves drawing and colouring.
“Since it was Man City, I just thought it was perfect for me. I chose this design because they already had stripes and I just thought I’d rather pick a pop of colour. So I did the stripes on the inside. I had to keep them blue because Man City is blue, so I added the pink for a pop of colour.”
Speaking to The Irish Times, Lucy Beth’s mother Martina said it has just been “crazy” since the news broke.
"The excitement in the house has been incredible. Everyone has been glued to their phones all day, between Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and everybody is ringing us. It's been really exciting," she said.
Mrs Duffy said Lucy Beth completed the design during lockdown and didn’t expect to win.
“I just printed it off, like I did with other things to keep her busy and when she had done the picture, I took a picture and tweeted it and tagged Man City. A few weeks later, I got a message to say she had been shortlisted and was one of the four finalists,” she said.
“She’s the youngest of five children. She has four older brothers. You would think if somebody was hitting headlines for football it would be one of the boys, not the little girl in the family.”
The family are fervent Manchester City fans and Lucy Beth has travelled from Dublin for games at the Etihad Stadium. Her first ever game there was when Manchester City defeated Watford in January 2018, and she was back for the team's New Year's Day win over Everton in 2020.
“Her grandad is a city fan since he was a child. He’s the reason why nearly all the rest of the house support them. In this house, it’s a case of if you can’t beat them join them. We have four boys, so when the football matches are on, the house is chaos,” Mrs Duffy explained.
“ If she didn’t have an interest, she would have been left out. She kind of had a passing interest and then about two years ago, after we brought her to a game, she was really interested after that.”
Fans can win one of 20 of the limited edition jerseys through a competition on the club's website.
