I’m an award-winning author who has sold more than 50 million books.. now I’ve helped my team sign ‘brilliant’ player
THEY say you should never fall in love with a loan player.
However, in the case of award-winning author and Wimbledon superfan John Green, he could not help but fall in love with Stockport loanee Joe Lewis.
The former Swansea star, 24, endeared himself to the Wimbledon faithful after a half-a-season loan spell from Stockport before his signing was made permanent yesterday.
But taking to TikTok, Green revealed he had helped the League Two outfit out by funding the signing of Lewis.
He explained: “This is the tale of the weirdest thing I’ve ever done with money.
“I sponsor my beloved fourth-tier English soccer team AFC Wimbledon just to see the sheer joy of seeing my logo on the back of their shorts.”
Green sponsors the club through his DFTBA (Don’t Forget To Be Awesome) logo and celebrated a decade of partnership with south west London outfit at the start of the season.
The video then showed the teaser video of Lewis pulling up his shorts with the logo on the back, with Green quipping “he simply cannot contained by shorts”.
He continued: “You might think I might mind him obscuring my logo but actually he is one of my favourite players, he’s just a lovely man and a great footballer.
“There’s only one problem which is that Joe Lewis was not actually a Wimbledon player, he was on loan from different team.”
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Green explained how Wimbledon’s ownership structure means they are not “flush with cash” despite wanting to sign Lewis on a permanent basis.
He added: “They couldn’t afford to do so on their own so they were like ‘Hey any chance you could uh’ and I was like ‘I think I can’.
“And so I kicked in a tiny bit of money and now Joe Lewis is a permanent AFC Wimbledon player and he can go on obscuring my logo and winning us games for many years to come.
“Please don’t take financial advice from me, but he’s ours Dons fans, he ours.”
Green, 46, wrote 2012 best-seller The Fault In Our Stars, with his overall books sales coming to over 50 million copies.
He also has a huge following on social media, with over five million fans across TikTok, Instagram and Twitter.
Following the signing of Lewis, who has scored three goals in 28 games from centre-back for Wimbledon, was described as a “brilliant” player by manager Johnnie Jackson.
Jackson said: “He’s been brilliant for us and an ever present in the team when he’s been available to play.
“When it looked like we might be able to do something with Stockport, we were desperately keen to make it happen.”
But Lewis is not Green’s only investment into the club, with him previously pumping in a significant figure in 2019 to help Wimbledon complete its move back to Plough Lane.
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