Soccer: Man U gives miners VIP treatment

Once they were famous for being trapped for a very long time in a deep, dark space. Now, it seems, they are everywhere - including the VIP stand at Old Trafford, watching yesterday's top-of-the-table football clash between Manchester United and Arsenal.

Twenty-six of the 33 Chilean miners who gave the world the best good news story of 2010 were at the Premier League game as guests of that old Manchester United legend, Sir Bobby Charlton.

Charlton, 72, who is a director of the club, issued the invitation back in October, when "los 33" were still trapped underground and it was not certain that they would ever emerge alive.

Yesterday, the 26 visitors sported brilliant red Manchester United shirts as they posed for the cameras with Charlton. The remaining seven, who perhaps are not Manchester United fans, preferred to stay in Chile with their families. United won the match 1-0.

The invitation was originally sent to the nephew of one of the trapped miners, Ronald Reyes, who passed the news on to his uncle on the day the rescue shaft finally reached the men.

His uncle, Mario Gomez, who was 63 and battling lung disease, was reported to be "very excited" by the prospect of watching Manchester United - if he reached the surface. All the men were brought out safely after 69 days.

- Independent