Liverpool legend David James booed by Anfield crowd for saving 11-year-old's penalty twice at half-time in Chelsea clash

David James was the pantomime villain on Sunday afternoon after he denied a young Liverpool fan his chance to score from the penalty spot on two separate occasions.

The 54-year-old, who made 277 appearances for Liverpool between 1992 and 1997, was back at Anfield at the weekend for their much-anticipated Premier League clash against Chelsea.

In fact, he took to the pitch at half-time to help promote Futuremakers, a community engagement programme organised by sponsors Standard Chartered.

The unique experience included a penalty shootout against a 'surprise' Liverpool legend, followed by an exclusive meet-and-greet at Anfield.

So how did it go? Well, a young supporter stepped up in front of the Kop End to try and convert from 12 yards but much to the crowd's displeasure, James dived to his left to stop the effort.

As you can see from the footage below, the youngster was even given an opportunity to retake the penalty, only to be denied again.

Here's how fans on social media reacted to the scenes.

One said: "That is some Oliver Kahn energy right there," while another commented: "We booed you good! You shouldn’t have saved that poor kid’s PK."

A third wrote: "To be honest that was very funny. The first save was actually a decent penalty, but to save the second was very funny, we thought you were trying to dive out of way but still saved it."

A fourth said: "The fact you’re bragging about saving a penalty taken by a 8 year old kid who would have been dreaming all week to score a pen at the Kop end. Pathetic," and a fifth added: "Well done mate he's 8."

Top #respect moments from David James, the kid should’ve tried harder pic.twitter.com/p86heksUdN

— morgan (@mxrganhulme7) October 20, 2024

James followed in the footsteps of former Bayern Munich goalkeeper Oliver Kahn, who once played in a penalty shootout against a group of nine-year-old children.

For every penalty scored, money was given to a charity but according to 'Tor!', a book about the history of German football, Kahn saved every penalty.

Back in 2015, Kahn addressed the incident. "Unfortunately that's true. But nobody told me back then that every goal meant a donation," he told SZ-Magazin.

"I parried almost every ball. Only later did my coach Winnie Schäfer explain to me what it was all about."