Saturday, December 15, 2007

Top Ten Liverpool Footballers of All Time

If you want to get the online live score and updates of the Chelsea vs Liverpool match then visit the link given below:

Carling Cup Chelsea vs Liverpool Live Score and Updates

http://football-cricket.blogspot.com/2007/12/carling-cup-chelsea-vs-liverpool-live_20.html


Liverpool
is the most successful English club at this moment with highest 18 premier league titles to their credit. Liverpool has also won Champions League title for five times so far. Many great footballers have played for Liverpool with sheer success both in domestic and European league. The club’s origin traces back to 1892. So, the club also carries some historical value. Today, I made a list of ten greatest Liverpool players of all time.

It is not possible to go beyond argument when it comes to make a list of top ten of all time. So, you may not feel satisfied with the list of players given below. I want to make myself clear beforehand saying that the players are of my personal choices and you may have your personal opinion over the matter. Here, I am giving the names of all of the ten Liverpool players of all time with a short introduction:

Kenneth Dalglish

Known as ‘King Kenny’, this Scottish forward is considered to be the greatest Liverpool player ever. With 172 goals to his credit, he is still in the list of highest goal scorer of Liverpool of all time. Kenneth Dalglish was the first player who got 100 goals both in English and Scottish league. Though he is best known for his successes with Liverpool, Kenneth Dalglish started his club football career with Celtic where he played from 1969 to 1977. However, interestingly he was a big fan of Rangers, the rival club of Celtic in Scottish league, from his childhood.

Kenneth Dalglish started playing football as a goal keeper in his school. However, he turned out to become a forward later on. Kenneth Dalglish joined Liverpool in 1977 and continued playing till the end of his club football career. In his illustrious career, he appeared in 355 matches for Liverpool. From 1985, he served Liverpool as a player cum manager. He brought the first ever ‘Double’ title for Liverpool in his first season as player cum manager in 1985-86.

Kenneth Dalglish spent his last season with Liverpool in 1990 leading the club to their last English premier league title so far. In Liverpool, he won 8 league championship titles, 2 FA Cup wins, 3 European Cup wins, 4 League Cup wins, 1 European Super Cup win and 5 Charity Shield wins. Besides an outstanding club football career, Kenneth Dalglish also had a superb international career with Scotland. He was the first Scottish player to have won 100 appearances for national team and he still holds the highest scoring record for Scotland with 30 goals jointly with Denis Law.

Ian Rush

Ian Rush is another great footballer who played for Liverpool with sheer dominance. This Welsh striker spent his prime time with Liverpool in two stints. Ian Rush first joined Liverpool in 1980 and continued there before he moved to Italy to join Juventus in 1987. However, he came back to Liverpool in the following season. Ian Rush went on to play for Liverpool till 1996.

Ian Rush was the attacking partner of Kenny Dalglish in Liverpool. Along with Kenny Dalglish, he brought many successes for Liverpool. Ian Rush holds many scoring records both for Liverpool and for his country. He is the highest goal scorer for Liverpool with 346 goals. Moreover, with 28 international goals for Wales, Ian Rush is still the highest goal scorer for Liverpool. He was awarded with the European Golden Boot in 1984 besides two other prestigious awards- PFA Players' Player of the Year and FWA Footballer of the Year in the same year. Just a year earlier, Ian Rush won the PFA Young Player of the Year award.

Alan Hansen

To many football fans of our generation, the name Alan Hansen does not mean that much. In fact, many of us hardly know anything about Alan Hansen. However, to any Liverpool fan, this is a familiar name. Alan Hansen played in Liverpool at the late 70s and total 80s. He played in 434 matches for Liverpool from 1977-1990 and he scored 8 goals. He was a defender and he also captained Liverpool club at its finest team. Under his captaincy, Liverpool won the league title and FA Cup in 1986. This is a rare achievement for any club in England.

Alan Hansen was an inspiring personality to the Liverpool fans. After the Hillsborough disaster of 1989, he attended the funerals of many supporters and visited the houses of some fans to support them. This shows that Alan Hansen was more than a professional footballer. Alan Hansen is unlucky because he did not get enough opportunities in Scotland National Team. Secondly, Scotland was not a strong team that he would get a lot of media coverage. Nevertheless, he is a legend in Liverpool club and he is still entertaining the football fans with his expertise in BBC football coverage.

Kevin Keegan

Kevin Keegan is one of the finest players that played for Liverpool and England. He was not that tall (5 feet 8 inches) but he was fast and loved to score goals as a forward. Kevin Keegan played for Liverpool from 1971 to 1977 and he scored 68 goals from 231 matches. He was captain of the team for some time and Kevin Keegan took part in some of the most memorable matches in the history of Liverpool. Kevin Keegan also played for a German Club and he was elected European Player of the Year twice- a remarkable achievement that no English footballer could achieve before or after him. This shows how much a great player Kevin Keegan was.

Kevin Keegan was a charismatic player and coach. He saw some notable success as the coach of New Castle United and Manchester City. He took both the clubs in Premier League and then inspired them to become one of the top clubs. Kevin Keegan was also the captain of English national team. He was also the coach of England national team. So, he experienced football at its finest. He was voted as one of the top ten Liverpool players by the fans.

Ray Clemence

A good team needs a good goalkeeper. Without a good goalkeeper, you can never dream of having a successful team. What kind of a goalkeeper Ray Clemence was? Let me tell you two simple facts. 1. Ray Clemence was the goalkeeper of Liverpool for 14 years and he was the goalkeeper of Tottenham Hotspur for 7 years. 2. Ray Clemence was the goalkeeper of England national team for 11 years. These two facts are enough to establish the fact that Ray Clemence was one of the finest goalkeepers in the history of England. He played in 1982 World Cup. He has a lot of medals in club football under his belt. He tasted First Division Title (5 times), He also tasted a number of European success and FA Cup. He played in 470 matches for Liverpool.

Ian Callaghan

Any list of Top Ten Best Liverpool players would surely be incomplete without Ian Callaghan. He played only 4 matches for England national team and his national career was insignificant. However, his record for Liverpool is not only impressive but also perhaps unbreakable. He played the most number of matches for Liverpool- 856 appearances. A record no Liverpool player could break until now. In fact, he played for the club from 1960-1978. He scored 69 goals too as a winger. When he started playing for Liverpool, Liverpool was in the second division. He tasted first division championship 5 times. Ian Callaghan was also a member of the 1966 England World Cup team that won the world cup that year.

Emlyn Walter Hughes

Walter Hughes played for Liverpool in 1967-1979. This was an interesting time for the club. In fact, Liverpool was not one of the top giants in English football in 1967. That time, it was a mediocre team. Walter Hugest was a defender and he had impressive performance both for his country and club. He took part in 62 matches for England national team while for Liverpool, he appeared in 474 matches. He was captain of both England and Liverpool. He died a tragic death in 2004 after suffering from brain cancer.

Phil Thompson

This center defender of Liverpool also spent most of his career with Liverpool. This English defender played 340 matches for Liverpool scoring 7 times. From his childhood, Phil Thompson was a fan of Liverpool. At the age of 17 he sighed for his dream club Liverpool in 1971. Phil Thompson continued to play for Liverpool till 1984 before his transfer to Sheffield United. He won seven English premier league championship titles with Liverpool. In fact, he saw the golden time of Liverpool with some great footballers in every department. This talented defender appeared for England national team in 42 matches. However, he could not be able to as much successful in England team as he was in his club football career.

John Barnes

His full name is John Charles Bryan Barnes. This Jamaican born English midfielder played for Liverpool from 1987 to 1997. However, he started his career in club football in 1981 with Watford at the age of 17. After spending some successful seasons in Watford, he came to join Liverpool where he played 314 matches with 84 goals. When he joined Liverpool in 1987, John Barnes got Kenneth Dalglish as player cum manager in Liverpool. He also played 79 matches for England national team with 12 goals. After his retirement, John Barnes managed Scottish club Celtic in 1999-2000.

Billy Liddell

Billy Liddell is considered to be one of most famous wingers of Liverpool. It is obvious that in 1940’s and 1950’s Billy Liddell was the most popular player of Liverpool side. Throughout his club football career, he played for Liverpool. Billy Liddell joined Liverpool in 1939 and ended his career in 1961. So, you can realize the contribution of Billy Liddell to Liverpool. However, his career was shortened due to the Second World War by six years. He led Liverpool to win league title in 1947.

It is true that Liverpool was not a strong side in English league at the time Rather, Billy Liddell’s excellent performance helped Liverpool to avoid relegation in several seasons before the side finally relegated in 1953-1954. The same year, Billy Liddell was given the captaincy of Liverpool aiming to the revival of the club. However, he could not be able to lead Liverpool to get promotion till his retirement. Appearing in 494 matches for Liverpool, he has 216 goals to his credit. With this record, he scored once in every 2⅓ games. Billy Liddell played 29 matches for Scotland national team with scoring 8 times. This great footballer died of Alzheimer's disease in 2001.

I know that many of you are thinking about some other great players who could have been included in the list. Yes, I also agree with you on this regard. It was really very hard to exclude some of those great players who also contributed a lot to Liverpool. However, I was bound to pick up only ten players for this list. Here, I would like to share some more names who could have been in the list. They are- Roger Hunt, Gordon Hodgson, Steve Heighway, Graeme Souness, Michael Owen, Phil Neal, Alan Kennedy, Robbie Fowler, James Carragher, Luis GarcĂ­a, Tommy Smith etc.

Now, dear readers, if you have your own list of top ten players of Liverpool of all time, you can share with us in the comment section. I would like to inform you again that this is my personal list of top ten Liverpool players of all time. So, you do not need to agree with it. Rather, if you have any opinion regarding this list of players, you can feel free to let us know your opinion through comment section.

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2 comments:

Unknown said...

Actually I think that Fernando Torres should be no.1, Steven Gerrard no.2, Michael Owen no.3,Peter Crouch no.4,Jose Reina[keeper] no.5,Dirk Kuyt no.6,Yossi Benayoun no.7,Daniel Agger no.8,Fabio Aurelio no.9 and Robbie Fowler no.10.Why isn't a soccer player with so much speed and skill like Torres not on your list?

Anonymous said...

No man kenny dalgish is classic bru it should be...kenny dalgish,kevin keegan,ian callanghan,steven gerrard,xabi alonso,torres,carragher,robbie fowler,micheal owen!:)