The Story Behind Allan Saint-Maximin Gifting Rolex to Newcastle Fan

The first match-week of the new Premier League campaign produced a wide range of results. While defending champions Man City got off to a strong start against West Ham, title challengers Liverpool could only muster a 2-2 draw against newly promoted Fulham. Lastly, the headline grabber has surely been Erik ten Hag’s “new” Manchester United losing at Old Trafford to Brighton for the first time (at home) in the club’s history.

While the score-lines of the big boys seem to have collected all the attention, a club perhaps with ambitions to reach the same status again in Newcastle United, began their league campaign with a comfortable win against Nottingham Forrest.    

Following an absolute long-distance stunner from Fabian Schar and a close-range finish from main striker Callum Wilson, the Magpies welcomed their fans back to St. James’ Park in the best possible way.

Beginning their first full season after the Saudi takeover, Eddie Howe put out a line-up that was a good mix of familiar faces who have won over the trust of the supporters previously along with the new signings now perhaps expecting to do the same.

Apart from Wilson, perhaps no one else comes close to Allan Saint-Maximin to have received immense love from the Newcastle fans for his work on the pitch last season. Finishing the league campaign with 10 G+A, the Frenchman’s productivity also came with some silky footwork and skill moves that also greatly excited fans of the club.

Although the 25-year-old did not get on the scoresheet on Saturday, it appears ASM has still managed to grab the headlines after the winger was spotted gifting a luxury watch to a fellow Magpies supporter after the game.

As Saint-Maximin was on his way to board the team bus departing St. James’ Park, he was seen approaching one supporter with a French national flag that had the initials ‘ASM’ imprinted on it.

While at first glance it looked like the player was about to either sign the flag or pose for a photograph with the faithful fan, the Frenchman certainly surprised everyone around him by gifting him a brand-new gold Rolex wristwatch.

The lucky supporter has been revealed to be Steve Dutton who works for NHS Ambulance Service and is also a loyal follower of the Toon army. Dutton and his son Daniel can be seen in the video looking speechless as ASM pulled out the gift set.

While football fans have surely been wondering why ASM chose to gift this particular Magpies fan, it appears the gifting was motivated by a shared connection between them off the football pitch.

As per his previous interviews, it appears that Saint-Maximin had an outstanding interest in Greek mythology and back in January this year, the Frenchman decided to make this official by launching his own Greek-myth inspired board game called Helios.

Apart from the game’s unique historical design, it appears players are also given the opportunity to win attractive cash prizes and other sponsored gifts such as Louis Vuitton bags and necklaces.

Furthermore, the game itself began to also have huge fan following leading to a large chunk of Magpies fans becoming a part of this growing Helios community.

It seems that ASM and Dutton shared an interest in the Greek-myth based board game and the gifting of the Rolex seems to have arisen out of this common link. This was once again confirmed after Helios’ official Instagram page posted the clip of ASM handing out the luxury watch.

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A post shared by Helios Pantheon (@helios_pantheon)

But at the same time, this is also not the first time that ASM has gifted a supporter a wristwatch as the Frenchman handed out Newcastle fan Michael Urwin a TAG Heuer Aquaracer back in November last year.

While it is unlikely that this gifting too rose out of a shared love for Helios as it was launched only this year, it surely looks like Saint-Maximin is impressing Newcastle supporters both on and off the pitch without fail.