There is a certain randomness to how football supporters - and particularly Liverpool supporters - come up with songs for their heroes.
The iconic 1964 BBC Panorama documentary filmed on the day the Reds clinched their first top flight title under Bill Shankly against Arsenal spoke of how Liverpudlians on the Spion Kop “appear to know intuitively when to begin singing together and seem mysteriously to be in touch with one another, with ‘Wacker’, the spirit of Scouse.”
That perhaps partially explains, even with the advent of the internet and social media enabling easy dissemination of ideas, how certain ditties like for example the latest homage to Jurgen Klopp to the tune of the Beatles’ ‘I Feel Fine’ can weave themselves almost instantly and seamlessly in the regular repertoire and you don’t have to trawl back too far through history to see how tunes for star players like Mohamed Salah, Luis Suarez and Fernando Torres swiftly embedded themselves into the collective consciousness.
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There remains an inconsistency at times however as to which player gets a song that really takes off and who doesn’t. Joel Matip in recent years may have played a significant role in bringing the game’s top honours back to Anfield as well as the current stellar campaign which sees Liverpool potentially on the brink of immortality as they chase an unprecedented quadruple yet he is lucky to occasionally get a brief version of the two-tone clapped version of his surname once preserved for Kenny Dalglish. Even Jordan Henderson - the man who has now lifted virtually every major honour for the club both home and abroad - has had to wait years to hear songs in honour of him make it from the pub/internet onto the terraces in any recognisable volume.
Yet occasionally for a variety of reasons a song for a player will pop up and grab the mood to such an extent it is belted out with verve and regularity in greater proportion to what the individual’s achievements have actually warranted simply because fans love singing it and there can be few better examples of that in recent times than Maxi Rodriguez.
The Argentine winger’s short spell at Anfield was far from a failure and, seen in the context of it coinciding with one of the most difficult and turbulent periods in Liverpool’s history, it is perhaps no surprise that supporters were keen to latch on to something, anything, which would provide some light relief from the dark clouds swirling around the club at the time and there is doubt the song devised for him had an irreverent touch of kitsch which felt much needed at the time. To the tune of Buddy Holly’s 1958 rockabilly hit ‘Heartbeat’ which was further popularised in the UK in the early 1990s following Nick Berry’s cover which provided the theme tune to the ITV television series of the same name, it comprised merely a simple repeated line of ‘Maxi… Maxi Rodriguez run down the wing for me…’ and an additional bridge of ‘der der.. de de ders’ and was so popular it still on occasion gets rolled out when Liverpudlians on their travels are working their way through the Kop songbook on coaches and trains or in pubs.
Rodriguez’s arrival on Merseyside barely a week after his 29th birthday in January 2010 provided a rare speck of light during the mid-point of a campaign which had begun with huge optimism but was rapidly turning into a waking nightmare. The previous spring Liverpool had been involved in their most credible league title challenge in the two decades since being crowned domestic champions in 1990 while also again showing their status as serial contenders for the Champions League by sweeping aside Real Madrid 5-0 on aggregate in the last 16. But despite notching up a club record Premier League points tally of 86 and only losing two matches throughout that league campaign, it was not enough to usurp Manchester United’s relentless push for a third successive title - which brought their overall total level with the Reds on 18 each - and, with the internecine civil war within the club unleashed by the catastrophic ownership of Tom Hicks and George Gillett now spiralling out of control, 2009/10 started badly for Liverpool and just got worse.
Two defeats in the opening three league games set a worrying tone and by the time Benitez’s side were beaten at bottom-of-the-table Portsmouth the weekend before Christmas, already their seventh Premier League loss of the campaign, they had already been knocked out of the Champions League in the group stages to leave the Spanish boss wracking his brains who he might be able to bring in to arrest a side towards mediocrity which was rapidly looking terminal. His bid to bolster his midfield following the departure of Xabi Alonso to Real Madrid by signing Alberto Aquilani had not come to close to working out due to the Italian playmaker’s injury woes and the Liverpool boss’ attention was drawn back to his homeland over an individual who had already shown what he could do in front of the Kop.
14 months earlier, only a late Steven Gerrard penalty had saved Liverpool from a home defeat to Atletico Madrid in the Champions League group stages following a fine strike by Rodriguez who had shown real deftness of touch to flummox Jamie Carragher after receiving an Antonio Lopez cross from the right flank to fire unerringly beyond Pepe Reina. The Argentina World Cup star - whose spectacular volley against Mexico had been voted goal of the 2006 tournament in Germany - had firmly established himself at the Estadio Vicente Calderon after moving to Europe in 2001 following his breakthrough back home with hometown club Newell’s Old Boys, initially on loan with Real Oviedo and then by way of a three-year spell with Espanyol before his move to the Spanish capital in 2005.
Now in the final year of his Atletico contract, Benitez swooped to bring the experienced campaigner - a close friend of compatriot Javier Mascherano who was still providing the bite at the heart of the Liverpool midfield - to Anfield on a free transfer at the beginning of the January window in a bid to breathe new life into his side’s flagging fortunes and spoke at the time of his enthusiasm at what the versatile Argentina would bring to the table.
"We were looking for players with character and a good mentality”, Benitez said. "He can play on the right, left or as a second striker. He is good at getting into the box and is a good finisher. Every year he gets five to 15 goals from midfield. I think he will adapt to English football because he is a clever player and takes up good positions on the pitch. It is a question of adjusting to the pace of the game and he will need some time, but with these players around it will be easier for him. Rodriguez will be a different kind of player for us and also competition for Dirk Kuyt on the right side, along with Nabil El Zhar and Yossi Benayoun. He will give us the opportunity to manage some of the other players and rest them if necessary to keep the level of the team. I know he was not doing as well as he did in the past at Atletico Madrid, but he is doing really well with Argentina and wants to impress for the World Cup."
It was perhaps a sign of the times however that the famously meticulous Benitez did not realise Rodriguez had actually lied to him during their initial conversations such was the 29-year-old’s desperation to seal his move to Anfield, with the Spaniard not discovering he had been duped until they were about to first appear together in front of the media following the completion of the Argentine’s move from Spain.
"Rafa told me that it was very important for everyone to speak English in the dressing room”, Rodriguez revealed years later to the Mirror. “He asked me if I knew how to speak the language and I said 'yes, of course, stay calm’. Of course, I didn't want the negotiations to fail so I told a little lie. When I arrived in England, there was a press conference and Rafa told me he would speak first and then I would continue. That was when I grabbed him and said ‘Look Rafa, I need to confess something to you. I don't know English. The only thing I know is how to say hello'. Rafa looked at me and said 'you son of a b****.' But we were both laughing and afterwards I learned how to speak English. I was very good at Atletico. I was the captain and I knew the city very well. But English football drove me crazy and I wanted to play there."
Liverpool’s season had lurched to a new low before Rodriguez even had the chance to pull on the red shirt for the first time when lower-league Reading knocked the Reds out of the FA Cup by winning a third round replay at Anfield and, though the Argentine made his debut as a 78th minute substitute in the next match away to Stoke City, he was soon given a taste of the wretched luck and form which would characterise Benitez’s last season at the club when Robert Huth’s 90th minute equaliser cost his new side a much-needed victory. Having given him a few weeks to settle, the Liverpool manager was keen to make use of his new man and the Anfield crowd got a first real taste of his durability and fighting spirit if not so much his quality when in only Rodriguez’s second start he dug in with his team-mates following the sending off of Sotirios Kyrgiakos to secure a psychologically important Merseyside derby triumph over Merseyside neighbours Everton.
He became a regular fixture in the Liverpool side as Benitez’s men tried desperately tried to undo the damage of the first half of the campaign with Rodriguez bagging his first goal for his new club with a strike in a late April 4-0 win at Burnley but it was too late to salvage Champions League qualification or indeed the manager’s job with the Spaniard being sacked after five years in charge shortly after the season concluded with a goalless draw at Hull City. The less than ideal to start to life with his new club did not affect the Argentine’s international prospects with him making four starts and one substitute appearance as La Albiceleste reached the quarter-finals at the World Cup in South Africa but he returned to Liverpool with former Fulham boss Roy Hodgson now installed as Benitez’s successor and the club’s very existence in peril with court cases looming concerning the protracted removal of Hicks and Gillett as owners.
Despite his own pedigree and the abject state of the squad around him, Rodriguez was only used sparingly during Hodgson’s brief six-month spell at the helm despite scoring the late goal at Bolton Wanderers which brought the first and final Premier League away victory of the future England boss’s dismal reign while also lifting the Reds out of the relegation zone but by the time the calendar ticked into 2011 the Anfield garden was looking rosier following the £250m takeover by Fenway Sports Group (then known as New England Sports Ventures) and the return as manager of club icon Kenny Dalglish, initially on a caretaker basis. The Argentine was named in the Scot’s first starting XI back in charge when the Reds were beaten 1-0 at Manchester United in the FA Cup third round and was in the team more often than not as improved form lifted Liverpool back up the Premier League table and to the fringe of the European placings.
He had been unable to add however to his three goals from earlier in the campaign under Hodgson and hadn’t started a game for a month before suddenly going goal crazy in late April and early May. Only in the team for the visit of League Cup winners Birmingham City’s visit to Anfield due to an injury to Andy Carroll, the Argentine put Liverpool in front after only seven minutes with a simple close-range finish after Jay Spearing’s effort on goal was parried by goalkeeper Ben Foster, adding his second and the Reds’ third midway through the second half by steering home Luis Suarez’s cross and completed his hat-trick seven minutes by slamming home on the rebound in front of the Kop after again being set up by Suarez.
"I don't think Maxi's a direct replacement for Andy Carroll but he's got more goals than Andy in that one performance”, Dalglish quipped afterwards about a player who had almost matched his previous goals tally of four in 48 appearances. “Maxi's a really intelligent footballer. He came in today and did a fantastic job."
It was enough to keep his place in the side and Dalglish’s faith was rewarded a week later when Rodriguez’s deflected 10th minute effort against Newcastle set Liverpool up for a comfortable 3-0 win to further bolster their European ambitions and incredibly eight days later the Argentine was heading home with another match ball after bagging anther treble in a scintillating 5-2 win away to Fulham which moved the Reds to within four points of fourth-placed Manchester City. He took only 32 seconds to find the net at Craven Cottage slotting home after errors in the home defence from Carlos Salcido and goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer, doubled the lead and his tally on the night only six minutes later when volleying home at the back post from Glen Johnson’s cross and completed his hat-trick twenty minutes from full time with a sumptuous strike from 25 yards to become the first Liverpool player to score a hat-trick against Fulham since Billy Liddell in 1954.
"To get another hat-trick is unbelievable for Maxi”, said Dirk Kuyt afterwards whose goal in the game had made him the first player since John Aldridge in 1989 to score in five successive league games for the Reds. "He wasn't in the side for a while but since he has come back he has done brilliantly. The big plus with Maxi was that when he wasn't playing he was still training and working hard, just waiting for the moment when the manager needed him. To get a hat-trick against Birmingham, score again against Newcastle and then get three goals tonight is amazing. I've just seen his third goal again on TV and it was a great strike. He's in really good form at the moment and that's the same for a lot of the players.”
Defeats in the final two matches of the season against Tottenham and Aston Villa meant Liverpool would miss out on European football but a final league placing of sixth represented a drastic improvement from the depths of 12th where the Reds had been languishing when Dalglish took over, the Scot’s appointment being made permanent during the summer as Anfield as the dark days of the previous autumn began to fade into memory. Rodriguez would play a lesser role in his second and final full season at the club, featuring in less than 40% of matches in all competitions as Liverpool won the League Cup and reached the FA Cup final but he still showed his knack of popping up with vital goals by scoring in late November wins away to Chelsea in successive weeks in the Premier League and Carling Cup, also adding a brace in the 3-2 April win at Blackburn that sent Dalglish’s men to Wembley in good heart for the FA Cup semi-final against Everton (which they would go on to win) after a poor run of four games without a win.
It wasn’t enough to get him a start against the Toffees and indeed Rodriguez was not called off the bench by Dalglish in either of the domestic cup finals that season but the Liverpool manager made no bones about what he thought of a player who still managed six goals in only 17 starts during 2011/12 and would have featured more had he been younger.
"Maxi is a very intelligent footballer," Dalglish said after the Argentine’s equaliser in a December 2011 1-1 draw at home to Blackburn which made it 11 goals in his last 12 Liverpool appearances. "He knows how to play, he loves to play but he is not going to play in every game and the same goes for Maxi as every other member of the squad. We have to manage him the best way we possibly can and when he plays he doesn't give you too many bad performances. He is a real credit to himself and if he was a bit younger we would have someone in our squad who would be top drawer."
Brendan Rodgers was keen to keep Rodriguez at the club when he took over as manager in the summer of 2012 but the offer at the age of 31 of a return home to Newell’s Old Boys in his home city of Rosario was too much to resist and he bade farewell to Anfield after 73 appearances and 17 goals over two and a half years at the club with what he described as a ‘suitcase full of great memories’ in an open letter to the club’s supporters which read, “Dear Reds, I am leaving Liverpool FC today.
“Before signing for LFC, I just saw the club as one of the greatest institutions in football. After my time here I can confirm that this is not just a great club but also a great family. I have tried to give everything every day that I was wearing the LFC crest. It has been a great honour to defend this shirt during two and a half years. I am returning home with a suitcase full of great memories, good friends within the team and also within this great family that works every day in the club. Thanks a lot for your support. You can NOT imagine what a great honour it was for me when the Kop sang, 'Maxi, Maxi Rodríguez runs down the wing for me da da da da dada...'
Hasta la vista.
Maxi”
He went on to rack up another 138 games for Newell's Old Boys over the following five seasons, where he returned for a third spell at the age of 39 following a brief spell in Uruguay with Peñarol before finally retiring at the age of 40 in December 2021 amid emotional scenes during a game with Banfield which unleashed a host of tributes from around football including his former Liverpool colleagues Luis Suarez and Jordan Henderson as well as international team-mate Lionel Messi who sent a video message saying, “It was an honour to share the pitch with you.”
The difficult circumstances surrounding his short spell with Liverpool meant it was easy for his achievements to slip under the radar, with eagle-eyed supporters being quick to mention his name when discussions over Harry Kane’s record-breaking goalscoring exploits in 2017 made much of the fact that in the time the England man had scored six hat-tricks, no other Premier League player had supposedly scored more than one when of course Rodriguez had scored two in a matter of weeks.
It showed at least he had not been forgotten amongst the Liverpool fanbase and a decade after his Anfield departure he was pleasantly surprised to be invited to play for the Liverpool Legends against Barcelona in a fundraiser for the LFC Foundation, his pride evident as his iconic song resounded around L4 again and he commented afterwards, “It came as a bit of a surprise to me, not long after I retired. It was two very nice invitations, enjoying it all. We played Barcelona legends against Liverpool legends, and I got to play as a five-a-side player. There was Gerrard, Kuyt, Milan Baros. Playing in front of a full house, feeling the warmth of the Liverpool fans again, which is very special, through something very nice, it created a spectacular atmosphere. I had a really great time in that Liverpool side when I was there, playing alongside players like Steven Gerrard, so I definitely can’t complain about anything from my time at Anfield!”
