We’ve been meaning to publish this great photo featuring Martin Abram, a Gooner from Croatia and Senor Guapo himself, Carlos Vela, for a very, very long time. So since the Gunners are playing United this weekend (oh dear, we got our fingers dipped into the Juve/Lazio and Depor/Madrid instead), here’s his awesome tale of hair gel and sombreros told especially to Futbolita!

“I asked Vela to put it the sombrero on and take a pic with me, but he didn’t want to spoil his haircut. The haircut really looked like he put lots of effort in it, so I didn’t want to ask him again,” said Abram (above), a 22-year-old student from Split.

“Few of us, Croatian gooners, went there (to Arsenal’s preseason). I always liked Mexican players, was so happy that Vela finally came, that was his first time at Arsenal preseason, after his loan at Spain (Celta Vigo), so my friend and I decided to make it special for him. We got sombreros from friends, our friend already had the Mexican jersey, and we were ready to attend every training with the sombreros and we’d applaud Carlos whenever he came, or was leaving training.”

“Not once he forgot to say HI, smile, and ask us how are we, not to say, he never refused to take pics with us, sign whatever we wanted etc. Brilliant lad. But we did some of those stuff to other players as well, its not like we were there just for Vela. We wanted to make everyone feel special, and important for Arsenal.”