'Those were my last words to him' - Liam Payne's school friend shares memories of late singer

John Carpenter shared his fond memories of Liam and the last conversation he had with the former One Direction star with the Express & Star

The pair began year seven at St Peter's Collegiate School on Compton Road, Wolverhampton in 2005 and John described the moment they met each other for the first time.

"He came up to me on the first day of year seven because we were both interested in joining the school sports teams," said John, now 31.

"He told me that he had been running for a number of years and encouraged me to join the cross country team with him. We both joined the running team and the basketball team, and we also shared classes together for the first couple of years."

Liam is said to have enjoyed modern foreign language studies, such as French and Spanish, as well as sports. Videos have emerged showing him speaking in Spanish to some fans in Argentina shortly before his death.

John says Liam was actually the best runner in the school for the first three years until John started to 'catch up with him' – outside of school, Liam ran for Bilston and Wolverhampton athletics club, while John ran for Tipton Harriers.

The pair would go to every cross country race together and were in the top 15 runners in the West Midlands. Liam aspired to make it to Team GB.

John says the tough competition might be what drove Liam to channel his passion into singing.

"There was a bit of a joke going round that because I started beating Liam at cross country races from year 10 onwards it pushed him towards singing," he said. "He certainly started singing more in year 10."

John thanked 'humble and caring' Liam for approaching him on that day in year seven and encouraging him to take up the sport he became so good at.

"If it wasn't for him I wouldn't have achieved being cross country champion for four years running," John said.

"He encouraged and inspired me to become as good as he was, even though he was the best. He was a very humble and encouraging individual, really caring and loyal.

"He would always check in to see how you were doing."

But despite Liam's famous status since X-Factor, it was not always like that.

"We had a difficult time at school," John said. "We weren't the most popular, but that changed when we became good at sports and the popular kids were congratulating us."

Everyone who watched young Liam on the big X Factor stage will remember when Simon Cowell told him to go back to school, finish his GCSEs and come back to audition again - so he did, two years later.

"I think he always knew he was going to go back on the show and make it further," John said.

"When he got through with One Direction, he came back to the school before the finals just to visit. I hadn't seen him for a month or two then. I had a feeling that when he came back it would be the last time I would see him because of the fame and the money he was about to come into.

"He came up to me on the day he came to visit the school again and said 'John, I think you might need to be my bodyguard because of the students who are going to come and take selfies with me'.

"About 30 seconds later they younger students had noticed him out of the classroom windows and swarmed him while I was trying to protect him from the crowd. It was quite surreal. We never saw anything like that in Wolverhampton, so to see your friend being idolised was a proud moment because he achieved so much.

"But at the same time to me it was only Liam, so I had that balance in my head."

John remembered what he told his friend before he became part of one of the biggest boy bands in the world.

"I said to Liam; I know you're going to get a lot of money and fame but please don't let it go to your head. Stay grounded and humble and remember the great time we had at St Peter's together.

"Those were my parting words to him. I thought I wouldn't see him again and I was absolutely right.

"I was shocked and heartbroken to hear the news of his death. He had a dream to achieve something great and he did. He was always determined to never give up on anything."