Half the world away: Coleman pays for Australian teen to attend Merseyside derby

Seamus Coleman has given an Australian teenager an experience he’ll never forget after paying for his 10,000-mile round trip to attend the last Merseyside derby at Goodison Park.

Mackenzie Kinsella, 16, from Sydney saved £1,500 to make the journey in December only for Everton’s Premier League clash with Liverpool to be postponed on safety grounds during Storm Darragh.

Speaking in a video released by the BBC, Everton club captain Killybegs native Coleman said then: “Hi Mackenzie, it’s Seamus Coleman here. I just wanted to send you a video message to say I know that you will be so disappointed.

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“I know how hard you saved up to travel from Australia for the Merseyside derby. know you were looking forward to the experience, of being at the last Merseyside derby at Goodison. We were all looking forward to the game but we’d love to see you down here at the training ground on Monday if that’s OK with you?”

A delighted Mackenzie got the chance to meet the Everton players as they trained and then couldn’t believe his luck with Coleman paid for his trip to the rescheduled Goodiston match, which finished 2-2 on Wednesday, with a move to the new Bramley-Moore Dock stadium only six months away.

And he was treated to a fantastic match, with James Tarkowski equalising for Everton in the eighth minute of injury time. Alexis Mac Allister’s had levelled for the visitors after Beto had given Everton the lead. Liverpool looked to be on the way to the three points when Mohamed Salah’s 73rd-minute goal, only for Tarkowski to send Goodison wild at the bitter end.

“Still crazy to think he’s done that for me,” Mackenzie said before the game. “I'm so grateful I had the opportunity to thank him earlier and yeah really happy to be here. I still can't believe I'm standing under the Goodison lights. It’s still a bit of a surprise. I think I'll really believe when I see it, once I'm seeing once it's kicked off and I've seen the blue and red shirt on the pitch - that's when I start to get excited.

“ I'm still shocked it's got this far; got this much attention and I've had this much out of it it's really amazing to be able to come on here and just talk about what happened.”