Steven George Gerrard is an English
professional football manager and former player who manages Scottish
Premiership club Rangers. He spent the majority of his playing career as a
central midfielder for Liverpool, with most of that time spent as club captain,
as well as captaining the England national team. Widely regarded as one of the
greatest midfielders of all time, Gerrard was awarded the UEFA Club Footballer
of the Year award in 2005, and the Ballon d'Or Bronze Award. In 2009, Zinedine
Zidane and Pelé said that they considered Gerrard to be the best footballer in
the world. A versatile and well-rounded player, highly regarded for his
leadership, Gerrard is the only footballer to score in an FA Cup Final, a
League Cup Final, a UEFA Cup Final and a UEFA Champions League Final, winning
on each occasion.
He was born on born 30 May 1980 and
raised in Whiston, Merseyside. Gerrard started out playing for hometown team
Whiston Juniors, where he was noticed by Liverpool scouts. He joined the
Liverpool Academy at age nine. His childhood footballing heroes were John
Barnes and Ian Rush at Liverpool and Paul Gascoigne for England.
Although not a Catholic and living
outside the catchment area, Gerrard attended Cardinal Heenan Catholic High
School upon the recommendation of his primary school teacher, whose husband was
a PE teacher there, due to its superior football reputation over more local
schools. Gerrard had trials with various clubs at fourteen, but his success was
not immediate—Gerrard never made it into the England schoolboys' team.
Gerrard's trials included Manchester United, which he claimed in his 2006
autobiography was "to pressure Liverpool into giving me a YTS
contract."
Gerrard joined the Liverpool
Academy at age 9. At age 17, he signed his first professional contract with
Liverpool 5th November 1997 and made his senior debut a year later in 1998.
In the 2000–01 season, Gerrard
helped Liverpool secure a treble of the League Cup, the UEFA Cup and the FA
Cup.
A UEFA Super Cup and another League
Cup followed, and Gerrard was made captain in 2003. In 2005, Gerrard led
Liverpool to a historic fifth European title, scoring a crucial late goal in
the group stages, and being named Man of the Match as he scored Liverpool's
first goal and won a penalty kick as Liverpool came from 3–0 down to defeat
Milan in what became known as the Miracle of Istanbul, regarded as one of the
greatest finals in the history of the tournament. The following year, Gerrard
scored two goals and assisted another in the 2006 FA Cup Final, which has been
called The Gerrard Final and is widely regarded as one of the greatest cup
finals in the history of the competition.
Liverpool win over AC Milan is one
of if not, the best moment in Liverpool FC’s history.
Chosen by The Daily Telegraph as
Liverpool's greatest ever player in 2015, Gerrard won a total of two FA Cups,
three League Cups, one UEFA Champions League, one UEFA Cup, one FA Community
Shield and one UEFA Super Cup in his 17 seasons at Anfield.
He was named in the PFA Team of the
Year a record eight times, the UEFA Team of the Year and the FIFA World XI
three times, was named PFA Players' Player of the Year in 2006 and the FWA
Footballer of the Year in 2009.
Despite collective and individual
success, Gerrard never won the Premier League, finishing runner-up with
Liverpool on three occasions. He joined Major League Soccer club LA Galaxy in
2015, spending one-and-a-half seasons there before his retirement in 2016.
After retiring from playing
football, Gerrard became a coach in the Liverpool youth academy and managed
their under-18 team during the 2017–18 season, before becoming manager of
Scottish Premiership club Rangers ahead of the 2018–19 season.
At international level, Gerrard is
the fourth-most capped player in the history of the England national team with
114 caps, scoring 21 goals. Gerrard made his international debut in 2000, and
represented his country at the 2000, 2004 and 2012 UEFA European Football
Championships, as well as the 2006, 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cups, captaining
the team for the latter two tournaments. He was named as the permanent England
captain shortly before UEFA Euro 2012, where he was named in the UEFA Team of
the Tournament. Gerrard won his 100th cap in 2012, becoming the sixth player to
reach that milestone for England. Gerrard announced his retirement from
international football in 2014.
My final thought on Stevie G is Steve Gerrard is so special
and respected because he reached the remarkable milestone of 100 goals in his
Liverpool career, and few would argue what an achievement that was.
First things first - there is no denying that Gerrard is an
incredibly talented player. Technically there are few better, he can run all
day and has deceptive body strength belying his wiry frame. His range of
passing can at times be stunning, and nothing further needs to be said about
his ability to score goals - his individual quality has won many a game for
Liverpool.
With nearly a decade of Premiership experience to his name,
Gerrard has still yet to curb his natural attacking instinct. Indeed, in that
respect he has arguably regressed since his younger days as a more
defensive-minded midfielder, where he showed signs of being able to harness his
boundless energy to good effect by aligning it with an awareness of what was
going on around him, to become one of the best box-to-box midfielders around.
Of course, under Benitez the midfielder has been given
license to push forward more often - but when asked to fulfil a deeper role as
part of a two-man central midfield, he has never gained his manager's full
trust. Too intent on eye-catching 60-yard passes or glory goals and lacking in
positional sense, Benitez has shunted Gerrard into a variety of more attacking
roles, showing a clear lack of belief in Gerrard's ability to fulfil the extra
responsibilities that come with the role of midfield general.
On the bottom line, Steven Gerrard is the best Liverpool
player that ever played for Liverpool FC.
