IT must be nice to see former Liverpool player Jamie Carragher’s name pop up when you scroll through your mobile phone contacts.

Yet that’s all in a day’s work for Wallasey-based writer Marc Gee, who has just completed a remarkable book project for the ex-England legend’s 23 Foundation.

Kissing the Badge is a series of true stories and interviews about football from the grassroots up.

It tells real life tales of the beautiful game, from muddy Sunday morning pitches to more celebrated surroundings, and features genuine enthusiasts telling their stories – some funny, some more reflective.

It’s not all superstars, either, whirling us across the country and around the world recalling the different paths and winding roads that football has taken them, happy and sad.

Carragher, who spent his entire 17-year playing career at Anfield, and is now a respected Sky Sports football pundit, has written the introductory foreword to Kissing the Badge.

And it will resonate with many who have and still do live and breathe the game – and still haul themselves out of bed at the weekends for a match with some local rivals on an unprotected, windswept field.

“I was born to kick a ball around, day and night, in the street, in the park, up against the wall,” Carragher said.

“You either love football, or, unfortunately for some folks, what else do we have to talk about?”

He adds: “I can relate to the stories in this book. I know exactly where [the reader is] coming from because I am just one of the lads, a fan first and foremost, and like you I dreamed impossible dreams, of meeting my idol.”

The idol Carragher refers to is the late Argentine superstar Diego Maradona – and there’s a photo of the pair together inside the book to prove it.

The germ for the project began back in 1991 when by chance, during a family holiday in Portugal, Marc happened to bump into a former star European player and got chatting.

To find out who, you’ll have to buy the book…

And not least because all proceeds from Kissing the Badge are going to Carragher’s 23 Foundation – named after his old LFC squad shirt number – in aid of underprivileged children on Merseyside.

“For that, red, blue, green or white, whichever colours you wear on the sleeve and whichever team is carved into your soul, I thank you,” he said.

Author Marc, 68, said: “Some of the footballers in this book are like the game of football; they come and go, like life, like myself, life moves on.

“I would like to think that in years to come, whoever picks up the book will look at it as a slice of life, past but not forgotten.”

Among other achievements, Marc wrote the screenplay for the film Al’s Lads, which was based on his own play, which premiered at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival in the early 2000s.

He is also the author of two novels and, including Al’s Lads, ten plays.

· You can buy a copy of the book and help underprivileged Merseyside kids for £10 by emailing mike@jamiecarragher.org