Liverpool fan buys £40 car and drives to Madrid for Champions League final

A Liverpool fan is making his way to the Champions League final in Madrid, via a £40 car he bought off Facebook. YouTube star Simon Wilson - best known for sneaking into the Floyd Mayweather Jnr v Conor McGregor boxing match in 2017 - came up with the left-field idea when he found how much flights to the Spanish capital would cost him.

The huge Reds fan, who's YouTube channel boasts more than 270,000 subscribers, was lucky enough to obtain a ticket for this Saturday's prestigious final against Tottenham in the ballot, but was thrown off the idea of travelling to Spain via plane when he found out it would cost him around £800.

So, the influencer decided to do something different instead, combining his two main passions - football and YouTube. Speaking to the Liverpool Echo, Wilson said: "I'll be uploading a couple of videos, but the reason I'm doing this is not just for YouTube.

"I was lucky enough to get a ticket in the ballot through my season ticket, but because the ballot wasn't announced until recently I didn't want to book transport.

"When I looked online, the transport was so expensive it was ridiculous, the flights were around £800."

Determined to make it to Spain, Simon wasn't going to let pricey airfares prevent him from making the trip to Madrid.

"I rang up my brother, Ben Wilson, and asked him how much was the cheapest car we could get."

After a bit of digging, Ben found a Skoda Favorit GLXI up for sale on Facebook for just £40 - one of six still licensed to drive in the UK.

"When he told me I was like 'just buy it now, we will worry about it afterwards'," added Simon.

With the car purchased, Simon invited one of his subscribers to join him on the adventure, who, as luck would have it, is a Tottenham fan.

"I just thought, I've got a spare seat in the car and one of my subscribers, who I've travelled with before, is a massive Tottenham fan.

"But he works full-time and is not fortunate to go to the matches, but now he'll get to soak up the atmosphere."

Simon, Ben, their friend Mark and Spurs supporter Richard, began their journey on Wednesday, starting from Anfield. Their next destination was to be Dover ferry port in Kent, where they would then board a ferry to France - a journey that would usually take around five hours.

However, with the car's condition and heavy traffic factored in, it actually took more than six, leading to the quartet missing their ferry to Calais. Fortunately enough, they were able to catch the next one a little while later and were on their way.

Simon has already encountered one problem, though, losing the pipe that cools the engine - not ideal. However, he is focussed on making it to the Wanda Metropolitano no matter what, adding: "Worst case scenario we will jump on the train make it happen - there's no way I won't be there."

Want to track his progress? You can watch Simon's full journey on his YouTube channel here.