A FOOTBALL daft Drumchapel boy stepped on to the pitch with his heroes when Chelsea played Barcelona in the Champions League recently.

Callum Carroll was a mascot for the first leg of the last 16 match after mum Diane had entered him into Mastercard’s Priceless Mascots Experience competition.

The pair couldn’t believe it when they received a call to say the nine-year-old had been picked to walk out of the tunnel in front of more than 40,000 people.

Diane said: “He heard it because it was on loud speaker. It was just his face, it was shock.

“I couldn’t believe he was actually going down to London to be a mascot for Chelsea-Barcelona. I contacted Mastercard before I started planning anything because I thought it was a wind-up.”

The pair were driven down to London by Callum’s dad Steve and the St Clare’s Primary School pupil was walked out by Chelsea player Victor Moses.

Callum is a keen footballer himself, who plays for Blantyre Celtic and attends a training academy at Lennoxtown on Saturdays.

Just as he was about to walk out on to the pitch, he was given a cheeky wink by Barcelona’s Lionel Messi and a high five by Luis Suarez.

He told the Post how the pre-match walk was organised and said: “They picked you by height. You could pick the line but they didn’t tell you what team was where.

“[My friends] were like ‘I saw you on TV and you were with Victor Moses.’”

Proud mum Diane watched from the stands as her son made his bow, and admitted her eyes welled up from the emotion of the occasion.

She said: “It’s just something we would never have experienced before in our life time. Knowing my son was going out with these big football players. I was crying and everything.

“When they started playing the Champions League music, I was like ‘oh my boy’.

“I was a bit nervous at the start because I didn’t know how he was but I knew they would be looked after. I was just over the moon for him.”