Today we will put light on one of the greatest English player of all and present time Steven Gerrard. As after giving seventeen years of his whole international career to Liverpool F.C , the English player has stated and confirmed in media that this season would be his last in England and has signed a deal with U.S club L.A Galaxy.
He started off plying football as a kid representing his hometown team Whiston Juniors. He was spotted here by Liverpool’s Scouts and later joined the Liverpool Academy at the age of nine. When Gerrard turned fourteen his trials for different clubs but was not of a success and could not made it to the England School’s team.
He signed his first professional contract with Liverpool on 05 November, 1997 but his debut came a year later on 29 November 1998 in premier league against Blackburn Rovers as a last minute substitute for Vegard Heggem. Steven Gerrard appeared thirteen times in debut season substituting for Jamie Redknappin center midfield.
Gerrard began to regularly partner Redknapp in central midfield for the 1999–2000 season. After starting the derby against Everton on the bench, he replaced Robbie Fowler in the second half but received his first career red card for a foul on Everton’s Kevin Campbell shortly afterwards. Later that season, Gerrard scored his first senior goal in a 4–1 victory over Sheffield Wednesday. However, he began to suffer from nagging back problems, which sports consultant Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt later diagnosed as a result of accelerated growth, coupled with excessive playing, during his teenage years. He was then beset by groin injuries that required four separate operations.
The 2000-2001 season was a promising one and launched him as a professional footballer as he was a part of starting eleven for fifty games in all competitions and scored ten goals. His team won major honors FA Cup, league cup and a UEFA Cup. He was named as PFA Young Player of the year by his peers. In the following season, he would go on to win both the FA Charity Shield and UEFA Super Cup. In March 2003, Gerrard scored the opening goal in the club’s 2-0 win over Manchester United in the League Cup Final held at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.
In October 2003, he replaced Sami Hyypia as Captain after being vice-captain for a year. As manager Gérard Houllier said that he recognized Gerrard had demonstrated leadership qualities early on, but needed to mature. He chose to extend his contract at the club, signing a new four-year deal. But Houllier left the club after a trophy less season and was taken over by Rafeal Benitez. It was the time when Liverpool was facing a crucial time as captain Gerrard was thinking about a move to Chealsea saying he was kind of disappointed by the progress of his club but later stayed at Anfield rejecting 20 million pound deal.
The 2004-05 season saw Liverpool with a lot of injuries but finally returned to score in the last five minutes of a Champions League group stage match against Olympiacos to secure Liverpool’s advancement to the knockout round. He claimed that this was his most important, if not his best, goal for Liverpool to date However, Gerrard netted an own goal during the 2005 League Cup final on 27 February, which proved decisive in Liverpool’s 3–2 loss to Chelsea. During a six-minute stretch in the second half of the 2005 Champions League final against A.C. Milan, Liverpool came back from a three-goal deficit to tie the match at 3–3 after extra time, with Gerrard scoring one of the goals. Liverpool’s third goal was gained as a penalty from a foul awarded to Liverpool when Gennaro Gattuso was judged to have pulled down Gerrard in Milan’s penalty box Gerrard did not participate in the penalty shootout (he was the designated fifth penalty taker) which Liverpool won 3–2 as they claimed their first Champions League trophy in twenty years Dubbed the Miracle of Istanbul, the match is widely regarded as one of the greatest finals in the competition’s history, and Gerrard was lauded as the catalyst for the second half comeback Gerrard was named the Man of the Match, and later received the UEFA Club Footballer of the Year award.
In regards to his contract issues with Liverpool, Gerrard told the press after the final, “How can I leave after a night like this? But negotiations soon stalled and on 5 July 2005, after Liverpool turned down another lucrative offer from Chelsea, Gerrard rejected a club-record £100,000-a-week offer. Liverpool chief executive Rick Parry conceded the club had lost Gerrard, saying; “Now we have to move on. We have done our best, but he has made it clear he wants to go and I think it looks pretty final. The next day, Gerrard signed a new four-year deal as Parry blamed the earlier breakdown of talks on miscommunication between the two sides.
We shall continue with his stardom and successful career in coming week, as I believe it would just be totally unfair to wrap up this great footballer’s life in stadiums in one article and get away.
