It's a dream ticket which money is proving almost impossible to buy.

But a father and son from Lowestoft have landed the hottest seat in town – by winning themselves two tickets to tonight's eagerly awaited UEFA Champions League final at Wembley.

As Wayne Rooney, Lionel Messi and the other stars of Manchester United and FC Barcelona take to the field, Paul Taylor and his seven-year-old son Max will be there to savour a piece of footballing history.

The pair, from Walmer Road, Pakefield, scooped their special prize after attending the Champions Festival, which is being staged as a prelude to the final by European football's controlling body UEFA.

After travelling to London for the opening day last Saturday, they entered a competition with a top prize of a pair of tickets for tonight's showpiece match between Sir Alex Ferguson's team and their Catalan rivals.

And, much to their shock, their names came out of the hat.

'We entered the UEFA competition in their marquee,' said Mr Taylor, 39. 'It was a multiple choice quiz where we had to answer 15 questions about UEFA, and when we got them right we had to answer a tie-breaker 16th question, which we answered correctly, too. We were then put into a draw for the two tickets to the final.

'About 10,000 people were there on the first day but we got the winner's call-back at 8.30am on Sunday morning from someone representing UEFA – it was all a bit of a blur, to be honest with you.'

Mr Taylor, who used to play for Kirkley and Lowestoft Town, added: 'When we took the call so early on Sunday there was a feeling of disbelief, a bit of a shock considering how big the game is. It was a dream come true. Every father would like to take his son there and this is a great opportunity to bank some special memories.'

Max, who attends Pakefield Primary School, 'loves football' and has just completed his first season playing with Kirkley and Pakefield U7 team. On hearing the news that he was off to the final, he was overjoyed.

'It will be great for him to go and see these players such as Messi and Rooney live, rather than on television, as he does follow Barcelona,' Mr Taylor said. 'He was ecstatic when we told him we'd won the tickets, and he rang up his grandad immediately, which was a picture in itself, as it's a dream ticket for him.'

mark.boggis@archant.co.uk