By Tyler Arthur and Sophie Sandberg

Tom Brady is a winger for the Leicester Tigers rugby team, but he is also a big fan of American football, and has been following his namesake’s team, the New England Patriots for five years.

The 27-year-old Tigers winger shares his name with the GOAT, the Patriots’ quarterback Tom Brady, 40, who has won five Super Bowl titles throughout his 17-year tenure at the Boston-based club.

The Leicester Tigers player has a bit of fun with his shared forename, and he often has some banter on his Twitter account with confused American fans, who seek ‘TB12’ online, but end up instead tweeting the rugby star overseas.

Tom Brady – not that one. The Leicester Tigers’ self-proclaimed ‘Silver Fox’.

“I throw a few tweets out sometimes, just fish for a few reactions, get the American supporters onside, up my follower count,” he laughed.

In Super Bowl LII, the New England Patriots were toppled by underdogs Philadelphia Eagles, with a scoreline of 33-41, after they were able to hold out against a final drive from the Patriots, who were attempting to win their second back-to-back championship.

Leicester’s Brady said: “I wanted it to be a close game. I know last year there was the huge comeback, but I thought I’d like a nice competitive game, where I could enjoy some end-to-end stuff.

“At one stage it was quite open, maybe a gap of 10-12 points or so, but it was very close in the end so I did enjoy the game,” he added.

His namesake, the NFL’s MVP, put up historic numbers in his greatest ever Super Bowl performance, even though his team took the loss.

The Leicester player is currently looking to pick up form and get back on track in his own side’s Aviva Premiership season, while the Patriots’ quarterback  is hoping to come back better than ever next year.