{"id":121158,"date":"2025-05-22T00:26:16","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T00:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/121158\/"},"modified":"2025-05-22T00:26:16","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T00:26:16","slug":"rory-mcilroy-stops-in-belfast-on-way-to-spain-for-europa-league-final-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/121158\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy stops in Belfast on way to Spain for Europa League final \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Holywood golfer Rory McIlroy<\/a> made a pit stop in Belfast<\/a> on Wednesday morning as he made his way to Spain<\/a> to cheer on Manchester United in the Europa League final<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The lifelong United fan was pictured being greeted by former player Rio Ferdinand<\/a> after touching down in Bilbao, where the reds will face off against Tottenham at 8pm.<\/p>\n

McIlroy\u2019s private jet<\/a> was spotted making a brief pit stop at Belfast City Airport<\/a> at around 6.40am before taking off again around 40 minutes later. <\/p>\n

More: <\/b>Inside Rory McIlroy\u2019s private jet as he touches down in England following Masters win<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Loyalist<\/a>\"Christy<\/a><\/p>\n

The 36-year-old, who became just the sixth man to complete golf\u2019s Grand Slam by winning The Masters last month<\/a>, was later pictured alongside United legends Rio Ferdinand and Paul Scholes after arriving in Spain. <\/p>\n

\"RoryRory pictured after arriving in Spain (x.com\/rioferdy5) <\/p>\n

Ferdinand shared the pictures online with the caption \u201cYANITED\u201d following their interaction \u2013 both Ferdinand and Scholes will be on punditry duty as their former team aims to pick up their first silverware of the season. <\/p>\n

There has been much speculation about when United fan Rory would next show up at a match ever since his Masters victory in April. <\/p>\n

It was previously believed he would attend a Europa League match against Lyon at Old Trafford the week following his win, when his private jet was tracked touching down in Surrey. <\/p>\n

However, he did not eventually make an appearance.<\/a><\/p>\n

Manchester United manager Rubin Amorim invited the golfer to attend a game in the hope some of his success would be shared after what has been a disappointing season in domestic competitions. <\/p>\n

\u201cHi Rory. Congratulations for the Masters and I want to invite you to Old Trafford to show your trophy,\u201d Mr Amorim in a video message at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really important for us in this moment. You achieved something that a lot of people thought would be impossible and we want that feeling in our stadium.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I hope to see you soon at Old Trafford and to meet you.\u201d<\/p>\n

McIlroy previously paraded the Claret Jug at the stadium following his Open victory in 2014 and has also hinted that he would like to one day invest in the club.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Holywood golfer Rory McIlroy made a pit stop in Belfast on Wednesday morning as he made his way…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4106],"tags":[2378,54012,1811,2826,98,15038,4287,104,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-121158","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-belfast","9":"tag-belfast-city-airport","10":"tag-europa-league","11":"tag-golf","12":"tag-manchester-united","13":"tag-rio-ferdinand","14":"tag-rory-mcilroy","15":"tag-spain","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114548649737356021","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}