Liverpool FC players Lucas Leiva and Simon Mignolet have fallen for a hilarious April Fools’ Day prank played by teammate Jon Flanagan with a little help from Liverpool barber and actor John May.
The joke, filmed for LFC TV, shows John - owner of Sweeps barbers and coffee shop in Walton - pretending to be a singing cabbie who is booked to drive the players from Melwood to Anfield and back.
Behind the wheel of a red Vauxhall Astra, John, jokily touted as the world’s worst chauffeur, and his trusty accomplice Flanno take a bemused Mignolet and Lucas on a less than magical mystery tour en route to the ground.
As Flanno struggles to stop cracking up in the back, the burly bearded joker quizzes them about what they do for a living before revealing he’s not only a terrible taxi driver he’s also a Tina Turner impersonator!
A cheeky Lucas promptly offers him £20 to prove it and he’s treated to the least authentic ever private show of Private Dancer.
With the clock ticking, and John clearly in no hurry to get them anywhere, he stops off to nip to the shops leaving the Brazilian and Belgian pair desperately trying to find another way to make it to a players meeting in time.
Eventually John and Jon come clean and after a dash down the street they end up confessing their April 1 sins.
"I got a phone call asking me if I was up for doing a prank, so I said yes," says John, who spent an hour filming the stunt. "They explained what they had in mind, and then it was all improvised from there, they just left me to my own devices to say what I wanted.
"As far as the players were concerned I knew nothing about football, I didn't know who they were at all, and they didn't want to be full of their own ego say 'don't you know who we are?' so they had no idea what to do."
It’s not the first time 34-year-old John has been an on-screen joker. He regularly makes spoof videos to promote his barbers on County Road and became an internet hit back in December with his take on Star Wars featuring the Wealdstone Raider and Keith from The Office - aka actor Ewen MacIntosh.
Life is beautiful when you find Love when you find the place your meant to be when you find the one to give your heart to as for me this is you this is Love
How did they fall for it? They should have been used to having a person in the driving street who wings it, pulls the wool over their eyes and basically was taking them on a road to nowhere!
'I was only in the game for the love of football - and I wanted to bring back happiness to the people of Liverpool.' Bill Shankly
'We should have made a signing or two in the last couple of transfer windows.' Vish
How did they fall for it? They should have been used to having a person in the driving street who wings it, pulls the wool over their eyes and basically was taking them on a road to nowhere!
Classic, Loved it Donut.
