It’s not every day that football fans get the opportunity to meet their superstars. But a dream became reality for 12 of Real Madrid’s biggest fans – or ‘madridistas’ as they are called. During an event hosted at the club’s stadium in Madrid, these 12 Real Madrid supporters got the chance to virtually meet four of the team’s players – Marcelo, Gareth Bale, Sergio Ramos and Chicharito – via a Skype video call for a Q&A session.
Thousands of ‘madridistas’ from over 100 countries helped to create the first ever digital “fan sticker album” by uploading their photo to www.connectyourpassion.com, showing their passion for the club. In this novel digital sticker collection, the typical roles between fans and players are reversed – instead of fans collecting trading cards and stickers of their favourite sport stars, the fans send in their cards to their players.
From the thousands of participants, Real Madrid and Microsoft chose 12 fans for the live Q&A. Amongst the 12 lucky ones were three ‘madridistas’ from Europe: Ali Kareemi from the United Kingdom, Herminia Delgado Castro from Spain and Ricardo Rôla from Portugal. Check out their album stickers below:
![cardsrealmadrid1[1]](https://news.microsoft.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/cardsrealmadrid11.jpg)
The digital fan sticker album is a fantastic example that shows how Microsoft technology can build a bridge between people anywhere in the world. Bringing the Real Madrid team closer to its fans is a clear goal of the club. To make this happen, Real Madrid and Microsoft announced a partnership last November which aims to accelerate the club’s digital transformation through technology. The partnership also aims to put fans at the centre of the sport, revolutionising how they share their passion for the club and enhancing their community. It is this shared passion and mutual identity of ‘madridistas’ that has inspired the mantra of the partnership – “Passion Powers Passion”.
For more on Real Madrid and Microsoft, follow #PassionPowers on Twitter!
For more on the event, check out this blog on The Fire Hose.
