Get the FREE Mirror Football newsletter by email with the day's key headlines and transfer news Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Jamie Carragher has apologised to a teenage girl after he spat in her face and her mum branded him “disgusting”.

The Liverpool legend was caught on camera aiming a mouthful of saliva at the passenger window of a car containing the 14-year-old Manchester United fan and her dad after Saturday’s Red Devils victory over the Anfield outfit.

She claimed the spittle hit her on the forehead and made her cry.

The dad said “a bit of banter” with the former defender turned ugly after he mentioned the 2-1 scoreline. And he insisted the TV star must have seen his daughter in the passenger seat.

(Image: Daily Mirror)

Carragher, who had been covering the match as a Sky Sports pundit, phoned the girl and her father on Sunday night and said: “I just want to apologise and I hope you are OK.” The youngster told him: “OK, thanks for apologising.”

He had earlier admitted he was in the wrong but claimed he lost the plot after the ribbing went on too long.

The 40-year-old said: “It was a bit more than, ‘Hiya Jamie, it was 2-1’. It went on for two or three times. I drove away at first and it just continued. I lost my head. I shouldn’t have done it but I was thinking what is a grown man doing, carrying on like that two or three times with his daughter in the car?”

A Sky Sports spokesperson said: “It’s unacceptable behaviour and we will be addressing it with Jamie.”

Carragher has been removed from Sky Sports' Monday Night Football broadcast this week as a result of the incident.

He had already been culled from his duties as a pundit for Danish channel TV3 Sport on Tuesday night, where he was supposed to review Manchester United's clash with Sevilla.

In footage of the incident shot by the girl’s dad, she can be heard saying: “He spat on me.” He asks her: “Where did it hit you?” She replies: “On my face.”

(Image: Daily Mirror)

The girl’s 38-year-old mum was furious at dad-of-two Carragher for ­spitting at a child.

She said: “I was extremely angry and disappointed that he could even bring himself to do something like that. Looking at her, you know she is a child.

“What did she do wrong? She did not do anything wrong. Spitting at someone is the lowest of the low. It is disgusting.

“In all the years I’ve watched football, isn’t it all about banter?

(Image: Daily Mirror) (Image: Daily Mirror)

“And he could not take that little bit of banter? It was nothing. I could ­understand if someone was in his face, giving him abuse.”

Carragher has since said he will "apologise again properly" over the incident - and claims that he did not see the young girl.

Upon arrival at Euston station in London on Monday morning, where Carragher is expected to undergo crunch talks with Sky Sports bosses before Monday Night Football, he said: "I'll speak to the family again. I'm sorry. I'll apologise again today properly."

Asked if he had seen the girl in the car, he replied: "I didn't to be honest, she was leant back. I wish she wasn't involved. I hate that she was involved more than anything."

(Image: PA) (Image: PA)

The schoolgirl told of her shock after the incident. She said: “I have never been spat at by anyone before. I thought, ‘Why has he done that’. I thought I had done ­something wrong.

“People in school take the mick and it is just a laugh. Someone like him who is older should be able to take a joke.” Her dad told how they spotted Carragher about two miles from Old Trafford after the clash.

(Image: Daily Mirror)

He said he took his phone out and started filming. In the footage, Carragher appears to lower his window and the man winds down the glass in the passenger door.

The United fan added: “He looked at me and waved, I waved back and then he put his window down.

“I said, ‘Hey Jamie, good result, 2-1’ and he sort of looked at me and I said, ‘2-1, ha ha’ and his face just changed. I could just see him lurch towards his window and spit.

(Image: @SkySportsPL/Twitter)

(Image: Daily Mirror)

“I was stunned. I had not insulted him. I had not sworn at him. I have not got out and banged on his car. I have not done anything abusive to him, I’ve not stuck two fingers up at him.

“I’ve met footballers before and they have always been very accommodating. I thought, ‘Jamie Carragher, he is going to be up for a laugh.’ So when he did spit I was taken aback.

“I looked at my daughter and she was tearing up. I said did he hit you and she said, ‘He hit me in the face.’

“For a grown man to do that to a girl who had not done anything. She was sat in a passenger seat while her dad was trying to have a bit of harmless banter.

“There is no two ways about it. He saw her.”

The dad claimed moments later Carragher pulled up on the driver’s side of his car and gave him a thumbs up. He added: “I was angry and upset because my daughter was crying. I could not believe what had happened.

“She was crying. She said, ‘I’m ­embarrassed, he has just spat in my face. I don’t want to talk about it.’”

The girl also claimed she was sure Carragher saw her in the passengers seat. She said: “Hundred per cent, because I was right in the way. I did not say anything. I was just sat there looking out of the window.”

But both the mum and dad thanked Carragher for phoning an apologising.

The Bootle-born former player won 38 caps for England before he retired from the game in 2013.

(Image: Liverpool FC)

'A vile offence but not the worst on the pitch'

Jamie Carragher has previously been scathing about footballers who spit at each other – but he also said it was not the worst thing to happen.

In a 2015 newspaper column he called it “vile” and “disgusting”.

When then Manchester United’s Jonny Evans and Newcastle United’s Papiss Cisse were handed six and seven-match bans respectively for the offence, he said their punishment was “a little excessive” if compared to an “over-the-top tackle that would ‘only’ get three games”.

Carragher wrote: “As usual, there have been people who have said, ‘It is the worst thing that can happen on a pitch’; it is vile but let me assure you – I’d have preferred Lucas Neill to have spat the day he broke my leg in September 2003!”

He added he was “shocked more than angry” when Celta Vigo player Aleksandr Mostovoi spat at him in 1998 during a UEFA Cup game.

(Image: Getty Images)

Reds legend who roared for the Lions

Carragher is a Liverpool legend and won eight major trophies as he made 700 appearances during a 17-year career.

He won the FA Cup twice, three League Cups, the Champions League, the UEFA cup, the UEFA Supercup and the FA community shield twice.

And he earned 38 caps for England, playing at Euro 2004 and the 2006 and 2010 World Cups.

“Carra” – an Everton fan as a child – was seen as a utility player at Liverpool until the arrival of manager Rafa Benitez, who made him one of Europe’s most dominant centre-backs.

He has a charity foundation and in 2015 got a Beacon Award for community work on Merseyside.