Not many English teenagers have had their name chanted by a stadium full of German football fans, but Joe Bryant is one exception thanks to his astonishing Lego designs.
When Joe Bryant posts something on social media, there’s a good chance it will go viral.
One tweet alone on his popular Twitter profile has been liked almost 260,000 times.
And there’s a good reason this likeable teen from West Sussex has legions of fans, club sponsors and even Bundesliga players like Almamy Touré singing his praise.
It’s because Joe’s incredible Bundesliga stadiums – made entirely of Lego – simply must be seen to be believed.
“When I was at Werder Bremen, the fans didn’t know that the stadium was going to be kept there,” Joe told me over the weekend.
“And I came on (to the pitch) at half-time and then I got asked the question: will the stadium be staying in Bremen?
“And I said ‘yeah, it will be staying in the museum’ and then all the fans just started applauding.”
It’s a scene that’s been repeated across a number of Bundesliga stadiums over the years, with Joe’s father Phil driving both his son and the precious Lego cargo – which is too fragile to fly – to games all over Germany.
“This huge cheer just went up,” explained Phil Bryant of the reaction from Werder Bremen fans to the news that Joe’s painstakingly built Lego version of the Weserstadion would be staying at the club.
“It was a very proud Dad moment – it sort of sent shivers down my spine to hear this great reaction to my son bringing his Lego stadium to Bremen,” explained Bryant Sr.
Before anyone thinks Joe has an affinity for newly promoted northern German clubs, he’s actually only three grounds short of building all 18 stadiums in this year’s top flight.
And while he’s built a few non-Bundesliga stadiums – Belgian club Anderlecht’s is a favourite of mine – it’s clear it’s German football that has captured Joe’s heart.
Having first been exposed to the Bundesliga while watching TV on a family holiday in Turkey, Joe is now five years into a hobby that has delighted fans across the world.
His first stadium builds took around two months to complete, with Borussia Mönchengladbach’s imposing Borussia-Park the first Bundesliga ground he completed.
More recently, his staggeringly detailed build of Eintracht Frankfurt’s intricate Deutsche Bank Park took closer to six months to finish – and prompted Deutsche Bank’s head of communications to send Joe a letter of congratulations.
Interestingly, one of Joe’s aunts currently lives in Sydney. Could we see a Lego version of the new Allianz Stadium or CommBank Stadium built one day?
“I’ve seen a plan of the new Sydney FC stadium and it has a very curved roof – which is very interesting for Lego,” Joe admitted to me. “Getting it to curve is a bit… weird,” he added.
But having recently elected to study Engineering on his General Certificate of Secondary Education, there’s no doubt Joe is up for the challenge.
And just like anyone who’s ever built anything out of Lego, he admits his Mum isn’t particularly fond of stepping on any loose bricks with bare feet.
Joe at Werder Bremen
He’s had a few disasters too, inadvertently knocking down at least one stand and in one vacuum cleaner-related incident, virtually destroying an entire stadium.
But with travel slowly starting to return to normal in Europe, Joe is keen to pick up where he left off before COVID hit and start bringing his Lego creations to a few new Bundesliga grounds.
In the meantime, this lifelong Ipswich Town supporter has a got a few home and away trips to look forward to in League One with his Dad.
And Joe, who plays football himself as a marauding “Achraf Hakimi-like” right back, is looking forward to fans in some new stadiums chanting his name once again.
“It’s a better feeling than scoring the winning goal,” the English teenager told me.
“The winning goal is good – especially when you throw in a knee slide – but that’s top at the moment.”
Joe Bryant’s lego take of Deutsche Bank Park
You can find more of Joe’s Bundesliga stadiums on his YouTube channel.
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