There are myriad reasons Liverpool’s extraordinary fifth European Cup triumph will be remembered and celebrated by supporters for as long as the club exists.
The miraculous fightback from three goals down at half time against a star-studded AC Milan side, the Reds regaining their crown as Kings of Europe after a long 21-year wait, and Rafa Benitez’s side blunting the taunts of Everton fans cock-a-hoop at their side finishing above Liverpool and qualifying for the Champions League play-offs to name but three.
That redemptive aspect also applies to a fair few of the Liverpool players who wrote themselves into immortality on that heady night in the Turkish capital. Nobody could ever credibly claim the Reds’ 2005 vintage was among the club’s greatest when it came to ability - or arguably, even in the top 10 - but that such a relatively limited outfit managed to defy the odds and overcome a clearly superior outfit of proven winners only adds extra lustre in the eyes of many.
As does the fact several of squad who engineered the Reds to glory had long been written off as duds, including one much-maligned defender who only months earlier had become a figure of ridicule after a high-profile, hall-of-fame own goal but was picked up off the floor by an inspiring pep talk from a team-mate who knew only too well how it feels when your name becomes a punch-line.
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Djimi Traore was only 18 when he arrived at Anfield in February 1999 as one of Gerard Houllier’s first signings as Liverpool manager, the Frenchman having only taken sole charge of the Reds three months earlier after initially joining the club in an ill-fated partnership alongside Boot Room stalwart Roy Evans, and he wasted little time in returning to his home country as he began his Anfield revolution, paying £1.5m within weeks to rescue former Nantes midfielder Jean-Michel Ferri from a brief, unhappy spell with Istanbulspor in Turkey. A further £2.6m was splashed soon afterwards on Cameroon centre-back Rigobert Song who had made his name in France during four seasons with Metz before moving to Salernitana in Italy as the Reds boss made defensive reinforcements - both immediate and for the future - a priority, spending £700,000 on Lillestrøm’s giant Norwegian stopper Frode Kippe before using the knowledge gained during his role as the French Football Federation’s technical director by snapping one of his country’s most promising young defenders.
Although Traore had only made a handful of appearances after breaking through at his local club, Stade Lavallois, the teenager - able to operate both at centre-half and left-back - had already drawn interest from Paris St Germain, AC Milan, Parma and Lazio and Houllier wasted no time in tying up £550,000 deal to bring him to Merseyside as one for the future, declaring to the Liverpool public via the press having completed the deal, “You’ll thank me for signing him.” It would be the start of the following campaign before the manager felt he was ready for a first-team bow and, although the young defender started both legs of the Reds’ League Cup second-round tie with Hull City, they would be his only appearances until almost another year later and the opening day of the 2000-01 season when he began the first five Premier League matches at left-back.
It was the campaign which truly began Houllier’s reign in earnest with his side winning an unprecedented cup Treble but Traore’s youthful naivety was evident from those early-season games, inadvertently setting up Southampton’s Marian Pahars for the stoppage-time equaliser which earned the Saints a point after they had been three goals behind on Liverpool’s last-ever visit to the Dell and soon after clumsily conceding a penalty to Alf-Inge Haaland (father of Erling) which enabled Manchester City to draw level from two goals down at Anfield before a late Dietmar Hamann winner salvaged victory. The young Frenchman would make 12 appearances in total that campaign but none after late November and the following summer returned to France on a season-long loan with Lens, where alongside Senegal forward El-Hadji Diouf - who would join the Reds at the end of that campaign - he picked up valuable experience and almost won the French championship, a significant stage of his learning curve.
“Before I joined Liverpool I had only played five games as a professional and that was in the second division in France”, Traore admitted. “I wasn’t well-known and didn’t have much experience as a professional, Liverpool was my learning process and it was a high level, so it was not easy. I had to play a year-and-a-half in the reserves, where we won the championship and I was named captain, wherever I’ve been people have said I’m one of the future but that never stopped me wanting to play earlier than that. At first I was a bit apprehensive about coming to Liverpool but fortunately I knew there were some players like Rigobert Song and Jean-Michel Ferri who could take me under their wing and the fact the manager and his coaches are French influenced my choice. There were no regrets.
“I started off as an attacking midfielder at Laval and did quite well because I scored pretty regularly and got forward very often. But after a while I was pulled back into a defensive role because I kept hold of the ball too much. Well, that’s what people told me. You see, my game was based too much on the football I used to play when I was with my friends in Paris, where we wouldn’t run back after we lost the ball. I prefer to play in the middle of the defence as that’s where I learnt my trade but I’ve noticed that in France and in England too that people tend to have more confidence in a youngster who plays left-back rather than central defence.”
On his return to Anfield, Traore was thrust straight into the first team and would start 45 of the 60 games Liverpool played that term, an early season injury to Stephane Henchoz giving the young Frenchman a run in his preferred position of centre-back. But it proved to be the campaign when Gerard Houllier’s reign started to decline after such promising beginnings. The manager had returned from his life-threatening heart problems towards the end of the previous campaign with his side in contention for both Premier League and Champions League silverware and, as he memorably put it, “10 games from greatness” and, although neither materialised, a modern era record points tally (80) and league finish (2nd) fostered real belief that - with the right summer additions - the Reds could be in with a real shout of the top prizes next time around.
But the decision not to make former Arsenal striker Nicolas Anelka’s loan permanent and instead sign Traore’s former Lens team-mate Diouf instead - along with two more acquisitions from the French league, Salif Diao and Bruno Cheyrou - highlighted how Houllier’s golden touch had begun to desert him since his illness and although the Reds began the season well, leading and remaining unbeaten in the Premier League until early November, a defeat at Middlesbrough sparked an 11-game winless run from which the campaign - and in truth the Frenchman’s time as manager - never recovered. Three days later, Liverpool crashed out of the Champions League in the group stages after drawing a game at Swiss minnows FC Basel they had to win and, although the League Cup was won the following March after victory in Cardiff over Manchester United (a match Traore was left on the bench for), defeat at Chelsea on the final day confirmed failure to even qualify for the following season’s Champions League, a deeply disappointing end to a campaign which had begun with genuine title ambitions.
Traore would score his first Liverpool goal the following season - a superb strike in a rain-sodden UEFA Cup draw at Steaua Bucharest, when he received a short Steven Gerrard corner on the edge of the box and did well to keep his footing in the treacherous conditions before cutting on to his weaker right foot and curling an unstoppable drive into the bottom corner - but that was one of only 14 appearances he made in all competitions as he seemed to fall completely out of favour. It was another campaign of depressing decline with Liverpool never close to being even on the fringes of a title shout while suffering domestic cup exits to lower division Bolton Wanderers and Crystal Palace and being knocked out of Europe by Marseille in the quarter-finals. The Reds did at least manage to finish fourth and qualify for the following season’s Champions League, helped by rivals Newcastle United frittering away the advantage they held in the final weeks, but nobody was surprised when Houllier’s five-and-a-half year spell in charge was brought to a close with Traore admitting he had lost trust in his former mentor and would have left had he stayed in charge.
“He was much appreciated by the Englishmen and I can see why. But a lot of the French players didn’t have a chance to play and express themselves. We had to work twice as hard to play. I mainly played left-back but left-back was not my position; centre-back was. And when I played centre-back it was on the right because I was mainly next to Sami Hyypia and Sami didn’t like playing on the right. For a left-footed player that is also not easy. In the end, I didn't trust him anymore. I was upset. So many times I knocked on his door saying I wanted to leave the club. It was frustrating because I didn't play. And nothing changed. If he would have stayed then I would not be at Liverpool anymore."
Houllier’s replacement was Spanish coach Rafa Benitez who had briefly challenged the dominance of Real Madrid and Barcelona in La Liga by leading Valencia to two league titles as well as lifting the previous season’s UEFA Cup and, although he would swiftly install Jamie Carragher as Sami Hyypia’s centre-back partner, Traore was very much back in the fold despite almost signing for Everton during the summer and figured in 42 of the 60 matches Liverpool played in what was a season of startling contrasts which the French defender’s experiences encapsulated. A slow start in the league saw the Reds win only once away from home before January and fail to make up the ground in the race for a Champions League spot with rivals Everton who would finish three points above their neighbours and secure fourth spot.
Benitez’s side would go all the way to Cardiff in the League Cup but were not able to hold on to the early lead provided by John Arne Riise’s volley and Steven Gerrard’s 77th-minute own goal against the team he was being repeatedly linked with a transfer to saw Chelsea fight back to win 3-2 after extra time, having already exited the FA Cup at the first hurdle due to a moment which could have ended up cruelly defining Traore's career had he let it. Drawn away in the third round to mid-table Championship side Burnley, Benitez rang the changes with youngsters David Raven, Zak Whitbread, John Welsh and Darren Potter all given starts but it was Traore - at nearly 25, one of the senior members of the team - who proved the inadvertent match-winner six minutes in the second half when, with the game goalless and under minimal pressure, he attempted to silkily turn with the ball when dealing with Richard Chaplow’s cross across the face of the six-yard box but only succeeding in clumsily dragging the ball into his own net. Such an embarrassing exit only heaped further pressure and scrutiny on Liverpool’s season, with the previous weekend’s home defeat to Manchester United leaving the Reds already 21 points behind runaway league leaders Chelsea but Traore was lifted by words of encouragement from one of his team-mates who understood what he was going through.
“I’m not ashamed of the own goal against Burnley”, Traore would later insist to the Guardian. “It is the story of my career – some highs, some lows. It was my fault and I take responsibility for it. I was trying to turn with the ball but it bounced on the wrong part of the field, hit my achilles and went in. A big mistake and Rafa thought the same – that is why he subbed me soon afterwards. He also told me I had been too relaxed in the game and the own goal was my punishment for that. I agreed with him.
"The following day I was in the locker room at Melwood and Jamie Carragher came and sat next to me. He could tell I was not in a good place. We had a long discussion during which he said, ‘Djimi, that’s nothing, I once scored two own goals in one game, and it was against Manchester United. So don’t worry.’ That meant a lot and allowed me to move on.”
That resilience of spirit would be very much required as Liverpool’s rollercoaster campaign reached its astounding conclusion in the Champions League. The Reds had been on the brink of elimination from the group stages until Steven Gerrard’s sublime volley against Olympiacos took them into the last 16 where, after comfortably seeing off Bayer Leverkusen, Benitez’s side edged out Juventus in the clubs’ first meeting since the Heysel tragedy twenty years earlier to set up a semi-final against champions-elect Chelsea, who had already narrowly won both Premier League encounters between the sides that season as well as the League Cup final.
After a goalless draw in the first leg at Stamford Bridge, the Londoners clinched their first league title in 50 years with victory at Bolton the weekend before the Anfield return and were strong favourites to reach the final but Luis Garcia’s early ‘ghost goal’ coupled with a herculean defensive rearguard and sheer force of will from the Liverpool players and crowd took the Reds - against all logic, facing opposition who would finish a whopping 37 points ahead of them in the league - to the final.
Traore started all but one of Liverpool’s knockout ties, including both legs against Juventus and Chelsea during which only one goal was conceded, and spoke ahead of the final against Italian giants AC Milan - who had lifted the trophy only two years before - about how his decision to persevere on Merseyside through the tough times had been vindicated and of how the Reds’ indefatigable team spirt could again make the difference against more talented opponents.
"When I left France at 19-years-old for Liverpool, a lot of people said I made a mistake," he said. “But on Wednesday I will play the Champions League final! That is pride. Gerard Houllier signed me at Liverpool in 1999, when I was completely unknown. I owe him a lot. This season, Rafael Benitez has trusted me, and I play. That proves I don't need any string pulling to make a name for myself. When I came here, I felt some hesitation towards me. People said 'He is a Frenchman like Houllier. So he will play.' I had to make twice as much effort as the other players just to be accepted. On an individual level, we are less strong than a lot of players of other teams. We don't have so many bombastic names other great European teams have either. But we are still here, despite everything. Because there is a soul at Liverpool. We are more closely-knit than all our adversaries. There is also a life between us out of the pitch."
Traore began at left-back in the Ataturk Olympic Stadium but suffered a first-half nightmare alongside his team-mates, conceding within 40 seconds the final's first free-kick which Andrea Pirlo swung in for Paolo Maldini to volley the Italians in front and being unable to prevent Carlo Ancelotti’s side cutting the Reds open virtually at will as they raced into a seemingly-insurmountable 3-0 lead by half-time. It appeared the French-born defender - who had made his international debut for Mali the year before - was going to be put out of his misery when Benitez told him as he returned to the dressing-room he was to be substituted, only for him to be handed a reprieve when it emerged right-back Steve Finnan would be unable to continue due to a thigh problem.
“With Rafa it was two ways”, Traore recalled. “If he called me ‘Djimi’ I knew I was in his good books and if he called me ‘Traore’ I knew I was in trouble – at half-time he said ‘Traore', so I knew I was done. The first half was a nightmare – we were losing 3-0 in the biggest game of our lives. I took off my kit and got into the shower, but I just stood there thinking about my performance because it had been poor and I felt as if I’d let down my teammates. And then maybe 20 seconds later Rafa’s assistant, Pako Ayestarán, came and said: ‘Djimi, you’re in again’ – Steve Finnan was injured so he was coming off instead. I got out of the shower and refocused. This was a second chance for me to do well in a massive game and fortunately that is what happened with the clearance. It was redemption.”
With Dietmar Hamann - surprisingly omitted from the starting line-up in favour of Harry Kewell, who went off injured after only 23 minutes - finally introduced to shore up the midfield in place of the injured Finnan, Liverpool emerged from a chaotic dressing room to produce six minutes written inexorably into European Cup legend to draw level by the hour mark thanks to Steven Gerrard’s header, Vladimir Smicer’s low drive and Xabi Alonso’s rebound from his own saved penalty kick. The Reds withstood the shell-shocked Italians’ attempts to regain their lead to take the final to penalties, where successful efforts from Hamann, Djibril Cisse and Smicer coupled with two saves from goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek secured Liverpool’s fifth European Cup but it may not have happened but for a vital goal-line clearance shortly after Alonso’s equaliser from Traore to deny Andrei Shevchenko after Dudek had spilled a cross.
“I just tried to do my job and I was lucky to be in the right spot,” Traore modestly said. “To be honest with you, everybody brought something to the team that night. You have to give a lot of credit to the ‘Kaiser’ (Hamann), he brought his experience and his confidence to the team in the second half. He gave us what we had been missing in the first half. We were also lucky to have one of the best keepers in the world that night. Jerzy Dudek was on fire. The save from Shevchenko was unbelievable. When you see your keeper do that kind of thing, we knew that when it went to penalties he would save some. It was when Stevie’s header went in that I started to believe we could do it.
"I remembered the words of the coach. At half-time Rafa had said that if we could score one goal in the first 15 minutes of the second half we could come back. Only Stevie could have scored that kind of goal and lifted the team in that way. He brought back that spirit and desire. What we did in that second half showed that in sport anything can happen. Yes, it was a miracle. But for me it also showed the character of the group and the character of the manager. We did it for the fans and we did it for the city. I always loved playing in the Champions League for Liverpool because the fans were fantastic. European nights were special. You could feel that communication between the players and the fans. You could feel the spirit of Liverpool. We always played for them.”
Traore was part of the squad which won the FA Cup the following season after another penalty shoot-out following a dramatic final drawn 3-3 but only made 24 appearances throughout the campaign with Benitez gradually compiling the squad he wanted and the 26-year-old joined Charlton Athletic for £2m in the summer of 2006 to bring his seven-and-a-half-year, 141-game Liverpool career to an end. He moved to Portsmouth a year later and, after loan spells at Rennes and Birmingham City, returned to France with Monaco and Marseille before finishing his playing days in the United States with Seattle Sounders, who he went on to coach, before becoming head coach of the international Right to Dream academy, an organisation initially launched in Ghana over twenty years ago which provides youngsters with access to football training and educational opportunities and has produced more than 20 Ghana internationals, including Ajax midfielder Mohammed Kudus, who scored against Liverpool in the Champions League earlier this season.
Using his experience to help young players conquer obstacles - “I can say to them, ‘You can score an own goal and then a few months later win the Champions League’” - is a role Traore admitted suits his personality and his considered outlook on the game and his own career was evident in the heartfelt tribute he paid to Gerard Houllier following the coach’s passing at the age of 73 in December 2020.
“It’s a very sad day today. I’m devastated because we lost someone very important for world of football and very important for my career as a player. He signed me for Liverpool when I was 18 and gave me the opportunity to play at Anfield Road and be part of club history. I had a relationship like father and son with Gerard. He was hard on me but at the end of the day, he wanted the best for me.”
Outside Anfield, the name Djimi Traore still provokes tedious and cliched jibes over his comedy own goal at Burnley but his role, not just in the final, but during the Reds’ remarkable run to Istanbul should never be forgotten and will forever be a source of immense pride to the man himself.
“My Liverpool career was always like that – lots of ups and downs. But I always believed in myself. I always had trust from the manager and from my team-mates, and they helped me. I was always strong in my head and that helped me to put any bad times behind me. In difficult situations I stayed strong. What happened in Istanbul was reward for that. That was the greatest night of my career. To win the Champions League is the biggest achievement for any player and to win it with this football club made it extra special. It was the club’s fifth European Cup so we got it for keeps. I’m very proud that I was a part of that.
"Whenever I meet Liverpool fans in America, Europe or Africa they all want to talk about that final. Everyone remembers where they were for that game. That’s when you realise you touched people by being involved in something great. Overall I did my best and always fought to stay in the team. And in the end I played a lot of games for Liverpool, more games than a lot of players the club signed for big money. When you play for the Reds, you are a Red forever.”
