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Belfast Live
Belfast Live
Sport
Jane Corscadden

Young Liverpool FC fan goes viral after 'tears of joy' at first match

A young Liverpool fan from Northern Ireland has gone viral after a video of him crying "tears of joy" at his first match racked up hundreds of thousands of views in just hours.

Oscar McElhinney, 8, from Dungiven, got tickets from Santa to see Liverpool's match against Watford on Saturday, April 2, and the moment was captured by a video taken by his dad.

Within hours of the video being posted on Twitter by his aunt, it had racked up 700,000 views, was picked up by ESPN and shared around the world.

Read more: Football team in Larne helping men cope with grief of baby loss

The video shows Oscar at Anfield, becoming overwhelmed and crying "tears of joy" after spotting his favourite player, Mo Salah.

Speaking to Belfast Live, Oscar's mum, Melanie, said the youngster was "gobsmacked" by the whole experience.

"He's been a Liverpool fan for a long time. His daddy and brother are big Spurs supporters, so they were away seeing Tottenham last month as Santa bought them all tickets," she explained.

"He doesn't even like looking at photos of him when he was wee wearing Spurs things, he keeps telling his daddy that was before he could make up his own mind.

"He was so excited to go, he couldn't believe it. It's been a long wait for him from December to now but he had a brilliant time.

"He already can't wait to get back over, he's already giving me his Santa list for next year, saying he wants to get two tickets."

When he walked into the stadium, Melanie said Oscar "just can't speak" as he "couldn't believe he was there."

Oscar was gobsmacked when he saw his favourite player Mo Salah (Melanie McElhinney)

And now the video of his first experience at Anfield has gone viral, the eight-year-old is already preparing for the accompanying fame.

Melanie said: "My sister put it on Twitter then the next minute said her phone hasn't stopped. ESPN messaged asking for permission to put it up and they have it on their TikTok and Instagram, it's all going mad.

"He said he's going to school tomorrow and will be the most famous person there. He can't believe it. He said everybody on the boat on the way home knew him, they were all pointing over at him.

"When I picked them up from the docks I said, 'Oscar you're not gonna believe it but you've gone viral' and he said 'I already know!'"

Read more: Rathcoole man goes viral after being on phone when Kovačić scored a worldie

Read more: Wolves teenager being monitored by Northern Ireland

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