Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher and son James become Maltese citizens as youngster targeted for shock call up

Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher and son James have reportedly been granted Maltese citizenship with the latter now being targeted for an international call-up.

Reds hero Carragher spent almost two decades in the first team at Anfield and is second in the club’s all-time appearance list. Son James is following in his footsteps as a professional footballer and is now a Wigan Athletic. He had a spell in Scotland on loan at Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

And the Times of Malta report the pair are now Matltese citizens. One of the criteria is that the applicant must be a direct descendant of someone born in Malta and Carragher’s grandfather Paul Vassallo was from island’s southern city Qormi. He married an English woman and had daughter Paula, Carragher’s mother, before they moved to Merseyside.

Carragher Snr, who made his debut for Liverpool in 1997, was capped 38 times for England but Malta Football Association president Bjorn Vassallo revealed they have now held talks with the Carragher family over James playing for the minnows.

He said: “We’ve been in talks with James and his father Jamie for the last few months now; he [James] is open to it, but we’re still working on it.”

Malta face a tough World Cup qualifying group with one of either giants Spain or the Netherlands and Poland, Finland and Lithuania. Vassallo said: “We will not shy from signing players internationally; everyone is doing it, so why not us?”