Liverpool midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum has bought 11-year-old Limerick native Paddy Mackessy a pair of £300 (€347) Adidas PureControl football boots in the Liverpool City Adidas store on Monday.

After going over to Liverpool with his mother Louise for the Reds 3-0 win over Middlesbrough on Sunday, Wijnaldum spotted Mackessy eyeing the football boots on display.

The Dutch international saw Mackessy and leaned in behind him before asking: ‘Do you like those boots?’ Yes, of course and what size are you?’

Louise asked Paddy to hurry up as they left the store and with that, the shop assistant ran down the street after Paddy and asked him to come back as Georginio bought Paddy the boots before agreeing to taking another picture with him after their first picture together came out poorly.

"We went into the Adidas store and Paddy just went and bought a pair of skinny pants, and of course being a typical Irish mammy, I went 'come on so' because he would stay looking at soccer stuff all day if you let him," Louise told Ray D'Arcy on RTE Radio 1 on Monday.

"I was like 'come on, come on' and so we came out of the shop and he said 'I got a selfie with him' and I was like 'oh brilliant' and he said they started chatting about the soccer boots.

"He said to Paddy 'do you like those boots?' And Paddy said 'I do'.

"He said 'what size are you?' and he said 'size five' and he was like 'why don't you buy them?' And Paddy was like 'they're so expensive'.

"At that stage I had called him and we left the store and Paddy was telling me this and we walked out into the city and we literally just looked behind and the lady from the store had ran after us and she said 'listen, can you come back to the store? He wants to buy Paddy the boots'."

Mackessy said that he was delighted with Wijnaldum's act of kindness and that he wished he had printed the 26-year-old's name on the back of his jersey when his mother Louise bought him the new Liverpool playing kit on Sunday.

Wijnaldum scored in Liverpool's 3-0 win over Middlesbrough which booked Jurgen Klopp's side a place in next season's Champions League qualifiers.

Online Editors