Liverpool had goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher to thank when they won the League Cup final in February, with the Republic of Ireland international scoring from the spot as Jurgen Klopp's beat Chelsea on penalties after a mammoth penalty shoot-out. While they'll be continuing their quadruple challenge at home to Watford this weekend, Wembley is hosting another major and the stage is set for one former Red to be the hero.
Signed by Rafa Benitez in 2007, goalkeeper Dean Bouzanis cancelled his Liverpool contract a year early in search of first-team football in 2011, and has enjoyed a varied career over the past decade with stints in the lower leagues of English football, Greece, the Netherlands and his native Australia.
Now first-choice at League Two side Sutton United, he helped them claim an historic first-ever promotion to the Football League last season, and they remain in the play-off picture heading into the final two months of the season. But he could make history again this weekend as Sutton travel to Wembley for the EFL Trophy final.
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Taking on Rotherham United, Bouzanis was the hero for Sutton in the semi-finals against Wigan Athletic as they progressed on penalties, scoring his own spot-kick and saving two efforts from the Latics. Eyebrows might have been raised at the time at a former Liverpool youngster dropping down to the fifth tier of English football, considering the C.V. he had to his name, but, given his success with Sutton so far, it's proven to be the decision of his career.
Yet if not for the coronavirus pandemic, a managerial sacking in the Netherlands and Arsenal Women FC, Bouzanis might not even have returned to English football in the summer of 2020. When Arsenal Women signed his partner, Steph Catley, who had been splitting her career between moves to the United States with Orlando Pride and Reign FC and loans back to Australia with Melbourne Victory and Melbourne City, the Australian had a decision to make.
On the books at Melbourne City himself, the shot-stopper joined Catley in making the move to the capital, signing for National League side Sutton United in August 2020, a month after her own switch to North London. And he hasn't looked back since, with the League Two outfit giving the shot-stopper what he had craved most ever since leaving Anfield and his boyhood club behind.
“I had the opportunity to stay in the A-League with Melbourne City,” Bouzanis recalled in an exclusive interview with the ECHO last year. “At the time covid had hit and things were difficult for footballers, especially in England and around the world to take a player from overseas.
“It was a risk at the time because of covid and all the uncertainty. Steph had just signed for Arsenal. We’d been together for a few years and we wanted to be together. I was fortunate that Sutton gave me the opportunity to come over. Sutton are a great club and it’s been a fantastic move for me. People might have said the National League was a bit low but it was a chance to come back to England and a chance to prove myself, play games and show what I was about.
“You could say it was a risk, in case I got injured or whatever, but I was willing to take that risk and willing to back myself to be here with Steph and to continue my career in England because I enjoyed my time in England so much. I wanted to come back and I’m grateful that Sutton gave me that opportunity.
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“Coming to Sutton and playing so many games is what I wanted to do. I think I had played around 150 games before I came here so to play another 60 or so games so far since I’ve been here, it’s been great.”
The 31-year-old has been an ever-present since joining Sutton and enjoyed an historic first season at the VBS Community Stadium, keeping 18 clean sheets as they won promotion, as champions, to the Football League for the first time in the club’s history. Sitting just two points outside the League Two play-off places at the time of writing, Sutton are firmly in the promotion hunt once again with Bouzanis continuing to play a key role.
“We created history for Sutton. The first ever team in their history, I think in 123 years, to win promotion to the Football League,” he said last December. “It would have been unbelievable if our fans had been able to witness that. Unfortunately not with covid but it was still amazing because we got to celebrate winning the league in front of them against Hartlepool in the penultimate game of the season.
“What the manager, Matt Gray, has done for the club and the players he has brought in, it’s a testament to himself. We’re now competing in League Two and we’re right up there in League Two. Hopefully we can keep going, keep building, keep progressing and you never know where it could take you.
“We’re not getting too ahead of ourselves. We have got goals and ambitions in what we want to do but we’re just taking it one game at a time. I know it’s a bit cliched but coming from the division below, it’s what you have to do. We’re just seeing where it takes us. What we’ve done so far is amazing so hopefully we can keep it going.”
It's now over 10 years since Bouzanis left Liverpool behind and he certainly has no regrets about his decision to cancel his Reds contract.
Taking a pay-cut to sign for Oldham Athletic in 2011, he was even treated with two FA Cup meetings with his boyhood club during his two years at Boundary Park. An unused substitute for a heavy 5-1 defeat at Anfield in January 2012, it was a different story when Oldham pulled off a shock victory with the Australian in goal 12 months later.
“Oldham were tracking me for a year or so,” he said when recalling his decision to leave Liverpool. “Initially I wanted to go on loan so I could stay at Liverpool but there was a bit of a contractual issue so I was going to go on a free to sign.
“You had to take a pay cut going to a club like Oldham. I wanted to play first-team football, I was in that stage of my career. I went to the club, I think I was 22, and felt I needed to play first-team games. I was ready to play first-team games and Oldham had been tracking me so we came to the agreement to end my contract a year early so I could go out and get games.
“My time at Oldham was unbelievable because we had fantastic cup runs and I played a lot of games for the club. I still have fond memories from my time there.
“It was a dream cup tie for me, being a Liverpool fan and to play against Liverpool having represented the club, it was unbelievable for me. To win was an unbelievable feeling but at the same time it was a bit weird because you’re a Liverpool fan. We played against fantastic players.
“ Stevie had a shot that hit the crossbar which I got a finger on that I remember, but my memories from that game are a bit of a blur. It was a big occasion and you remember the result and the feeling of the final whistle and Matt Smith scoring a couple of goals.
“I swapped jerseys with Brad Jones, being another Aussie keeper who was around the national team at the time. To be able to share a field and professional environment in a competitive game with the club I supported was fantastic.”
Leaving Oldham in 2013, Bouzanis moved to Greek side Aris but swiftly returned to England with Carlisle United following a dispute over unpaid wages. However, his time at Brunton Park was equally brief as he failed to make an appearance before returning home to Australia where his fortunes started to turn.
“Greece was a tough time for me. I had a three-year deal there but they stopped paying me so that’s why I left,” he said. “Then I went to Carlisle to get fit. I was only there for six months, a quick stint, because I wanted to get out of Greece.
“Then Western Sydney came in for me and I spent two seasons there. We won an Asian Champions League as well. Then Melbourne City came in. They are owned by Manchester City. Thomas Sorensen was there, David Villa was there, Aaron Mooy was there. There’s a few great players who have played for Melbourne City. Being the club that it is and having the owners that they do, you can attract high-quality players.
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“It’s a fantastic club and what they do for Australian football, with the facilities and everything they have, is brilliant. To represent a fantastic club like them, to play quite a few games and be successful there was another great point in my career.”
His move to Melbourne granted Bouzanis with the opportunity to be a first-choice goalkeeper for the first time in his career, other than during his final season with Oldham. However, he couldn’t resist the lure of a move back to Europe in August 2018 when his former Melbourne manager took him to PEC Zwolle on loan. However, the switch didn't work out as planned.
“I went on loan to PEC Zwolle. The manager, John van‘t Schip, had me at Melbourne City and brought me there,” he said. “It was a fantastic experience. I didn’t manage to play any games for Zwolle, I was there and I was a bit unfortunate because John lost his job after six or seven weeks.
“It killed me a bit and it was tough to see John lose his job because he’s been a big impact on my career. Once that happens, you’re on loan and it puts you back a bit. But you have times in your career when you play and times in your career when you don’t play but there’s always things you can pick up and learn. To be able to play in another country and experience another culture helped me a lot.”
While his switch to the Eredivisie might not have worked out, Bouzanis has since responded by having the best consistent run of games of his career, first back at Melbourne and now with Sutton.
Considering then-manager Rafa Benitez declared Liverpool were signing the best goalkeeper in the world for his age when the Australian joined the Reds as a 16-year-old back in 2007, the shot-stopper ultimately failed to live up to such a tag. But Bouzanis is proud of his career and has no regrets about how things have turned out.
“I don’t have any regrets, you build your own path,” he said. “I look back to what Rafa said, it was a massive statement, but I’ve worked hard and given everything to the game and it’s given back so much to me.
“As a goalkeeper, I’m 31 years old and have a lot of years left ahead of me. If you look after your body, you give yourself every chance and that’s what I want to do. Some people peak later than others. I kept at it, kept working hard and now that I’ve got my chance, I’m able to show what I’m about.
“I’m still going, I’ve won a few things in my career and hopefully that can continue. As a young kid, it’s a dream for everyone to play professional football and to be able to do it for eight or nine years so far has been fantastic. Hopefully I can continue for another eight or nine years.”
A version of this story was first published on December 4, 2021.
