GERRA RD RETIRES
Liverp career ool legend calls time on glittering 18- year playing
By Jonathan White
After a career spanning 18 years and just two clubs – although he will rightly be remembered for just one – Steven Gerrard has announced his retirement from soccer. The Liverpool born and bred midfielder spent the vast majority of his playing days at Anfield before a brief spell in Major League Soccer with the Los Angeles Galaxy. And what a career it has been.
Gerrard made his debut for Liverpool as an 18- year- old under Gerard Houllier in late November of 1998. A brief substitute appearance in a win over Blackburn Rovers did not suggest what he would go on to achieve at his boyhood club, nor did the subsequent injuries which halted his development.
The following season there was much more cause for celebration on the red half of Merseyside. Gerrard netted his first senior goal for Liverpool against Sheffield Wednesday almost a year to the day from his debut and went on to become a mainstay for the side over the next couple of seasons.
Early success
His first silverware came in the 2000- 01 season and much like the old English adage about buses, you wait all that time for one and then three come along at once. Gerrard played in the finals of each of Liverpool’s unprecedented three- cup treble of FA Cup, League Cup and the UEFA Cup – he even
scored in the final of the latter before finishing the game as an auxiliary right back as the team looked to hold on to their 5- 4 lead.
Gerrard’s reputation as a biggame player had been established by then and it was extended further in the team’s next chance to win big: the 2003 League Cup final against great rivals Manchester United at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium. He opened the scoring on the way to a 2- 0 win over a team that he had trials for as a youngster – although Gerrard insists to this day that was only to stir Liverpool into action in offering him a contract.
While Liverpool was the only club he contemplated playing for when he was a youngster, at the end of the following, trophyless season ( 2003- 04) and with manager Houllier departed, now Liverpool captain Gerrard did contemplate a move to Chelsea, who would go on to win the league in the coming campaign. Instead, Gerrard stayed with Liverpool and new manager Rafael Benitez and it was arguably the greatest decision of his career.
World class
The 2004- 05 season would climax with the most unlikely of comebacks in the Champions League final, after a tortuous route to that game against AC Milan. Just like at every step along the road to Istanbul, including the dramatic equalizer against Olympiacos which took Liverpool through to the quarters, Gerrard was front and center.
The Reds found themselves Heartache
His was a career of milestones and he continued to rack them up. He passed the 100- goal mark for Liverpool, then 400 Premier League appearances, and 100 Premier League goals. One thing continued tinued to elude him, though, and that was the Premier League title itself. In the 2013- 14 season, under Brendan Rodgers, he came awfully close.
Liverpool were in the driving seat for their first title in 24 years – and on the 25th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster, where Gerrard’s 10- year- old cousin was the youngest victim – when Chelsea came to Anfield. Sadly, the Liverpool captain slipped and Demba Ba took advantage, paving the way for a 2- 0 defeat that was the beginning of the end of the Reds’ title challenge.
Gerrard stayed at Liverpool for two more seasons before leaving for Los Angeles for what was little more than a sunny footnote to a career where he racked up over 700 appearances and eight major trophies for Liverpool alongside more than 100 caps for his country.
More importantly, he was Liverpool captain for 12 years and triumphed over both Everton and Manchester United on numerous occasions. His leadership, ability and passion led to adulation from his own fans, fear from the opposition stands and respect from his fellow professionals, with Zinedine Zidane once describing Gerrard as the best player in the world.
Gerrard was something of a throwback, a family man who let his soccer do the talking. Now that he’s officially retired, there will be plenty of deserved headlines. There will be only more when, as expected, he rejoins Liverpool in a coaching capacity.