How a simple 12-second video reduced one fan to tears

Sometimes the easiest things we can do can have the biggest impact on other people's lives.

On Friday night, AS Roma midfielder Alessandro Florenzi played his first game after 10 months out injured - having suffered not one but two cruciate ligament injuries.

While the Italian international was out, for 298 whole days, one AS Roma fan took to Twitter and tweeted a different message of support for the player.

Every day, without fail, the 26-year-old supporter from Toronto, took to Twitter to post a message with the hashtag #ForzaAle.

Even when some fans, tired of his repetitive tweets, suggested he call it a day, he continued – adamant that he would keep it going until he saw his hero back out on the pitch.

On Friday evening, at Stadio Olimpico, that moment came when Roma played a friendly match against Chapecoense, with all proceeds donated to the Brazilian club following the air disaster they suffered in November 2016.

Florenzi started the game, scored the first goal and left the pitch to a standing ovation.

In the tunnel after the game, the player was inundated with requests to speak to the media.

However, after being told about what the fan - Theoren Abate - had done on Twitter, Florenzi got his mobile phone out, turned the video camera on himself and recorded a message directly for the fan.

He then used Whatsapp to send the video to a member of Roma’s media department and asked for it to be tweeted to Theo from the club’s account.

The video message lasted 12 seconds.

In total, it took less than three minutes from the moment Florenzi was told about what the fan had done, to recording the video message, to passing it along for it to be tweeted out publicly.

Three minutes to record a video and share it with the world.

And once it was shared, Florenzi retweeted it from his own personal account.

There was no set-up - no attaching mics to the player or checking sound.

No professional cameras or lighting rigs to be set up.

No script to memorise.

No budget.

Just a simple 12 second video shot on a mobile phone.

A simple gesture to say thanks that took literally no effort on our part.

And the impact it had on the fan?

It reduced him to tears – and caught the attention of the club’s fellow fans that had followed this one guy tweeting his own personal support for a player for 298 days.

“I was just watching TV and my notifications were going wild and I saw I was mentioned in a tweet from Roma,” explained Theoren about the moment he found out about the video message.

“I was somewhat confused then I opened the tweet and I was floored. I dropped my phone and I'm pretty sure I watched the video 12 times before I could process or react. A few people mentioned me in Tweets but I didn't read their tweets until after I saw the video. Some were excited, some were concerned for my health. It was difficult to keep up with it all as I was still blown away by the initial tweet and video.

“At first I just thought it was a tweet that tagged me and the video took a moment to load so I was just excited and happy that the club had taken notice of me for something I had done. At first I was curious. I think the nerves took over when I first saw Alessandro's face. Like I said, I was so taken aback I dropped my phone.

“I watched the video 10-15 times just to process what it was. I don't know if I can properly put into words how I felt. Overwhelmed would be a start - in a good way. I was astonished that Ale had taken note and he was thanking me. For what? I get to watch him play for my club and he was thanking me. I couldn't stop laughing. It was such an amazing feeling to see that my tweets had made it somewhere. I felt proud more than anything.

“It's remarkable that a player who has been through an injury like this takes note of an obsessed fan and credits them. I was overwhelmed with emotion. I cried like a baby. Rewatching the video over and over didn't make it better either.

“I was blown away by the reaction of the other fans. There were so many positive comments. I know my friends and followers have had to put up with my #ForzaAle tweets for 300 days and they'd seen me go through it daily but even strangers were excited for me. I got so many messages and replies - I couldn't possibly thank everyone for their kind remarks. I've always loved how Roma fans have been able to come together - through nothing more than a mutual love of Roma – and form a community of fans who become friends.

“I always knew Ale was a down-to-earth person. It's amazing to see a player reach out to a fan anytime and this just take it to new heights. As for the club, it's a new level of respect. To see that they do notice and recognise the fans on Twitter is amazing. The humbleness shown by the club and by Alessandro was remarkable and it's left me with a memory that I'll never forget and I'll always be grateful for.”

As I explained at the start of this piece – sometimes it’s the smallest things can have the biggest impact.

As people who work in the media or sporting industry, we can sometimes get complacent about the access we are given to people who fans idolise.

The lesson learned for us is that we need to better at this – better at understanding that football – and sport and entertainment - is about fans and it should be our job every day to let them know that we notice them and appreciate their support.

We try but we don't do it nearly enough.

It doesn’t take a big budget or a marketing plan to do it

In this case, all it took was a 12-second video.