Seven-year-old Manchester City fan from Ballybofey meets football legends in Spain

Former Arsenal and Barcelona striker Thierry Henry with Noah O'Leary in Madrid

placeholder image — Former Arsenal and Barcelona striker Thierry Henry with Noah O'Leary in Madrid

Noah O'Leary and his dad Darren are avid Manchester City supporters and travelled to see their side take on holders Real Madrid in the second leg of the play-off round

A young Ballybofey football fanatic bumped into a couple of Champions League winners on his trip to Spain this week.

Seven-year-old Noah O'Leary and his dad Darren are avid Manchester City supporters and travelled to see their side take on holders Real Madrid in the second leg of the play-off round of this season's Champions League.

Madrid had won the first leg 3-2 at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester and eliminated the Premier League champions with a 3-1 win in the second at the Santiago Bernabéu, with Kylian Mbappe sealing a 6-3 aggregate success for the LaLiga champions.

The French international scored a hat-trick for the Spanish side before a late consolation goal from Omar Marmoush for City.

Despite the result, it was an occasion the Donegal men won't forget, having met both Thierry Henry and Jamie Carragher. Henry played for Monaco, Arsenal, Barcelona and New York Red Bulls in a glittering career.

He helped Barcelona to victory in the 2009 Champions League final, when they defeated Manchester United 2-0 in the final in Rome, with Samuel Eto'o and Leo Messi the goalscorers.

Henry was also a two-time World Cup finalist with France, winning on home soil in 1998 and losing out in 2006, as well as playing his part in the success at Euro 2000.

Henry enjoyed his best playing days at Arsenal, scoring 174 goals in 254 games between 1999 and 2007 before a brief four-game loan in 2012, where he scored once.

Carragher, a central defender, only ever played for Liverpool, 508 times between 1996 and 2013, with the highlight being the 2005 Champions League final in Istanbul when his team came from 3-0 down against AC Milan to draw 3-3 and won the competition on penalties 3-2, after extra-time. He also earned 38 England caps.

These days both Henry and Carragher work as football analysts on television.

Earlier this season, Noah, who is in first class at Dooish NS, watched on attentively and gave a thumbs up to Erling Haaland, who was going through the paces before City's Premier League fixture against Southampton. Noticing, the Norweigan striker returned the wave to make Noah's day.