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05th Sep 2014

Video: 13-year old Villarreal fan with cancer plays in charity match against Celtic, scores and gets a brilliant reaction

If this doesn’t warm your heart this Friday morning we don’t know what will. What a tremendous gesture.

Conor Heneghan

If this doesn’t warm your heart this Friday morning we don’t know what will. What a tremendous gesture.

Every young football fan dreams of playing for and scoring for the team they support when growing up and Spanish side Villarreal were able to make that dream come true for Gohan, a 13-year old boy with cancer, recently.

After hearing that Gohan’s dream was to play in El Madrigal for Villarreal, the club were able to facilitate his wish in a recent game with Celtic, when the two clubs staged a charity match to mark the 10-year anniversary of a friendly relationship between them that began when they met in the Uefa Cup in 2004.

Gohan was welcomed into the Villarreal dressing room beforehand, given his own seat with his own picture in the background, given a personalised number 12 jersey and then invited onto the pitch with both sets of players to participate in the match.

Immediately from kick-off, Gohan was given the score at the stadium he always dreamed of playing in and after toying with Celtic ‘keeper Lukasz Zaluska for a few moments, he eventually hit the back of the net and was hoisted onto the shoulders of the Villarreal players before being substituted and given an amazing reception by everyone present.

We should warn you that you might struggle to hold back the tears at times during the clip above but it really was a wonderful gesture and fair play to everyone involved for making it happen.

Video via YouTube/VillarrealCFOficial