FOOTBALLER Jermain Defoe has made a moving tribute following the death of his best friend Bradley Lowery as a mass of tributes have been paid to the youngster.

Candles, teddy bears, scarves, balloons, football shirts and notes have been placed outside The Stadium of Light in Sunderland to honour Bradley, from Blackhall Colliery, who was diagnosed with the rare form of cancer when he was 18 months old, died on Friday.

Last night, a petition to rename the East stand at Sunderland’s Stadium of Light in honour of the six-year-old had amassed nearly 40,000 signatures, after a seeing a surge of interest over the weekend.

And calls were growing for the England striker, who formed a close bond with the six-year-old Sunderland mascot in the months before he lost his battle with neuroblastoma, to be crowned Sports Personality Of The Year.

Following Bradley's death, Defoe posted a several photographs of his time with the inspirational boy whose courage touched hearts around the world.

The 34-year-old, who now plays for Bournemouth, wrote: “Goodbye my friend gonna miss u lots. I feel so blessed God brought u into my life and had some amazing moments with u and for that I’m so grateful. I’ll never forget the way u looked at me when I met u for the first time, the genuine love in those cute eyes.”

Defore wrote: “Your courage and bravery will continue to inspire me for the rest of my life. You will never know what a difference you made to me as a person. Sleep tight little one. My best friend.”

Legends of the footballing world have also been paying tribute over the weekend with posts on social media from Alan Shearer, Gary Lineker, Robbie Fowler, Ian Wright and many more.

His family has said money raised for his treatment will be put into the Bradley Lowery Foundation to support other children in the same position.

On Saturday, ahead of his appearance at Durham Miner’s Gala, Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn a research centre could be set up in his name to find better ways to treat the condition in future.

He said: “His family has been as strong as they possibly could. What a brilliant family they are and the community that has supported him has been fantastic.

“I hope in future it will lead to more research into what he suffered and see if we can protect other children from it in future. Some years ago the tragedy of Anthony Nolan’s death led to the Anthony Nolan Research Centre being set up and that has done a lot of good so in his memory.

“Let’s try and save lives in the future, and say thank you for everything Bradley did.”