Nottingham Forest players and fans have launched a social media campaign to get defender Eric Lichaj a dog after he revealed he fell one goal short of earning a pet in the FA Cup win over Arsenal.
The American scored twice as the Championship side won 4-2 at the City Ground on Sunday to eliminate the holders, and said after the game his wife had promised him a dog if he scored a hat-trick this season.
He tweeted on Monday, asking “anyone who is bored” to send “dog pics, memes, gifs” to @KatPerko - his wife’s Twitter handle – and plenty of users joined in using the hashtag #GetEricADog.
Teammates also got involved, with Kieran Dowell, who scored the penalty for Forest’s fourth when Lichaj was keen to take it, posting a GIF of a beagle flying on a magic carpet. Various other teammates waded in, with Ben Brereton, Zach Clough and Matty Cash among those to post dog-related videos on Monday.
BBC Radio Nottingham tweeted: “Sure many @NFFC fans would support our attempts to wear down @EricLichaj’s wife to get the man a dog after his efforts on the pitch yesterday.”
The radio station questioned whether two goals could mean a small dog for the man of the moment. Lichaj will be out of contract at the end of the season and was in talks about a new deal before Mark Warburton was sacked as manager, but he has yet to put pen to paper.
Academy boss Gary Brazil, in charge of first-team affairs until the club appoint a new boss, hopes Forest keep hold of the 29-year-old.
“He is not a player this club would want to lose. You do not want to lose good players, do you?” he said. “Whatever age they are, you want to keep good players at a club and secure at the club so that they enable you to push on.”
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