After James Carragher, his son, made his much-anticipated international debut after switching allegiance, former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher expressed his pride in his son’s accomplishment. James Carragher is 22 years old.
At the beginning of this month, James Carragher was given the opportunity to play for Malta in preparation for their World Cup qualifying matches against Finland and Poland.
The 22-year-old, who plays for Wigan Athletic, a club in League One, was recently granted Maltese citizenship alongside his father. Jamie’s grandfather, Paul Vassallo, and his mother, Paula, were the ones who made the application for citizenship.
Immediately following the confirmation of their newly acquired Maltese citizenship, the president of the Malta Football Association, Bjorn Vassallo, confirmed that the MFA had initiated discussions with the family regarding the possibility of a call-up.
He stated, “We have been in discussions with James and his father Jamie for the past few months now,” and then went on to say, “We will not be afraid to sign players from other countries.” Why shouldn’t we do it if everyone else is doing it?
In the following few weeks, James became a member of Emilio De Leo’s team, and on Friday evening, he was given the opportunity to start for Malta in their World Cup qualifying match against Finland. Unfortunately, Malta ended up losing the match by a score of 1-0.
After watching his son make his debut in the senior international competition from the stands, Jamie Carragher, a former England international, took to Instagram after the final whistle blew as a way to express his reaction to the event.
“Very proud of [James] on your international debut,” he wrote on his Instagram story, alongside a picture of the two of them together. Son, you did not deserve to suffer the loss.
James is expected to make another appearance on Monday night, when Malta will play Poland in another World Cup qualifying match. As part of this match, Malta will be competing against players such as Robert Lewandowski and Matty Cash.
Jamie Carragher, a former defender for Liverpool, was a member of the Three Lions from 1999 until 2010. He has a total of 38 caps to his name for England.
The previous year, during an episode of Stick To Football that was brought to you by Sky Bet, Carragher recalled the moment he realised that his career with England was coming to an end.
The match between England and Brazil was the first game that was played at the new Wembley Stadium. During the entire week of training, I was playing the position of centre back,” he explained. “Rio must have been out, and I was thinking to myself that I had just played in the Champions League final, and that I was Liverpool’s player of the year.”
“However, when they reach the Friday, I find myself playing right back all of a sudden, and someone else was playing centre back.” During the game, they played, and as I was driving back to my house, I realised that I had finished my relationship with England.
Since we still had another game scheduled for the middle of the week, we went home for the night and then returned. On the other hand, I was aware that I did not wish to continue playing on that trip back.
I came back for the second game, and by that time I wasn’t even playing right back. Instead, Wes Brown was playing right back, which was fine, but that was the point at which I was finished.
I was approached by Steve McClaren, who informed me that he would be playing me in the following game. In order to avoid the sensation of being fake, which I did not want, I advised him not to do it. If I’m being completely truthful, I can say that I didn’t enjoy being away.
“At that time, I was probably 29 years old, and I had the idea that if I did not leave with England and I prepared myself for Liverpool, I would be able to win that fight and finish my career at Liverpool. That was the most important thing for me, and that was to simply remain in Liverpool.
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