A National League football manager who met his sporting hero Michael Jordan while on holiday has described the experience as “a dream come true”.
Luke Steele, joint manager of Peterborough Sports and a former Posh goalkeeper, met the basketball star in a restaurant with friends in Ibiza.
Posting a video of the meeting on X, Mr Steele wrote: “There are rumours circulating that I cried whilst meeting Michael Jordan on Saturday night so I would just like to say on record that these rumours are 100% true.”
“I’ve been so lucky to meet some amazing, inspiring people all through my life… but this was certainly my number one,” he said.
“We were in a restaurant and I was trying to move people out of the way because one of my friends was on crutches and we wanted to get to our table,” Mr Steele said.
“The last set of legs that I moved out of the way was a really long set of legs – and I looked at the guy – and it’s Michael Jordan.
“I was completely sure it was him straight away… that is my number one, that is my guy since the 1990s… I was fixated on Michael Jordan.”
Jordan is a six-time NBA (National Basketball Association) champion and five-time MVP (Most Valuable Player Award) – and is widely celebrated as the greatest player in NBA history.
“For some weird reason I gave him a little nod and I was telling the boys to stay cool, to stay calm… after that the waiter came over and he had sent us all a shot of tequila,” Mr Steele said.
He said relished the opportunity to talk to Jordan, and “held on to every single word he said”.
‘A cool guy’
“The whole place, a thousand people all trying to make their way over that way… Michael spent time with everybody who came over, but not minutes like we did.”
After Mr Steele’s business partner told Jordan they were there for early birthday celebrations, the basketball star bought drinks for the group of friends.
“He was such a cool guy… he was so present,” Mr Steele recalled.
“It was me and him talking and when he was talking to my friend he was not anywhere else, he was not trying to look over our shoulders.
“For me, personally it was a bit of a dream come true, I’ve always admired the guy -even as a kid he was the one sports star I always looked up to.
“He was everything and more… to meet him was just brilliant.”
