Footballer pays tribute to dad

A YOUNG footballer has graduated with a US prestigious soccer scholarship ten years after his father died during a five-a-side game.

Darryl Wilson played centre-half for Pencaitland Athletic and Gala Fairydean before enrolling at Oakland City University in Evansville, Indiana, in 2005.

He was just 16 when dad Ludovic collapsed and died of a heart attack while playing a game in Haddington.

The tragic death at 42 of the Haddington Amateurs and Haddington Star midfielder stunned the local footballing community. It made his only son even more determined to make a career out of the sport.

Last month, proud mum Pauline, gran Jessie and sister Catriona, 28, travelled from the family home in Riverside Drive, Haddington, to attend his graduation ceremony in the US.

The young footballer has since accepted a 12-month contract with an independent company coaching schoolchildren in New Jersey.