Adebayo Akinfenwa has revealed he 'threatened' his AFC Wimbledon team-mates for Steven Gerrard's shirt when Liverpool visited the Cherry Red Records Stadium in 2015 in the third round of the FA Cup. The Reds won the match 2-1 thanks to two goals from Gerrard, but it was Akinfenwa who opened the scoring.
In William Hill's Stripped podcast, lifelong Liverpool fan Akinfenwa has spoke of how he contacted former Swansea City team-mate Joe Allen before the game to set up Reds captain Gerrard giving his shirt to the ex-striker after the FA Cup clash. Gerrard was happy to oblige.
Akinfenwa idolises the former Liverpool captain and says Gerrard is the 'best player' he's ever played against and gets 'goosebumps' when he thinks about the strong relationship between himself and the club. Gerrard personally wrote the foreword in Akinfenwa's book.
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Akinfenwa said: “I told everyone that I was going to get Gerrard’s shirt. I loved my Wimbledon team-mates but I threatened them. I won’t sugar-coat it. I said, ‘if any of you ask for Stevie G’s shirt, there’s going to be a problem.’ I played with Joe Allen at Swansea, who was at Liverpool at the time, so I gave him a call and arranged it prior.
“I said, ‘tell Stevie that the big man wants his shirt.’ And he text me back saying: ‘Stevie says he’s got you.’ I told the Wimbledon boys it will be a straight-up misunderstanding if you take his shirt. But Stevie was a man of his word and we embraced afterwards, and then I showed the world that he gave it to me.
“That was the first time I met Stevie G. The relationship between Liverpool and myself has stayed strong. I have goosebumps talking about it, I feel humbled. It’s mind boggling, Stevie G wrote the foreword in my book, and he doesn’t really do that. He put a paragraph at the beginning of my autobiography and wanted to write it personally. Sometimes individuals get their publicists to write it, but he wanted to do it personally. People don’t realise how big that is.
“One of the greatest moments of my career was when Wycombe got promoted to the Championship, and Jurgen Klopp sent me a personal congratulatory message. These things are synonymous in my heart and have played a major part in my career.”
Gerrard's two goals ruined Akinfenwa's dream of playing at Anfield and the Liverpool captain even apologised to the striker before curling in a free-kick to give Liverpool the lead.
“People ask who the best player I’ve played against is. It’s Stevie G,” Akinfenwa added. “And not just because he is my idol, it’s because, 20 minutes into that game, it looked like he had just decided, ‘I’m bored now, let’s go and score.’ He picked the ball up on the halfway line, put it out wide, got in the box and headed it in. That’s what it felt like.”
“Later Stevie had a free-kick, and as I walked past him, as he’s putting the ball down he says, ‘sorry big man.’ I look at him like whatever. He puts the ball down and bends it over the wall. The second goal of the game, they win 2-1, and I miss the chance to go back to Anfield.”
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