Steven Gerrard returns to Anfield this weekend as Liverpool Legends lock horns with Celtic.
For many the greatest player in the club’s history, the 42-year-old will inevitably be the star attraction when he pulls on that famous red shirt once again.
While that desired Premier League title remained elusive to the boyhood Red, he still won every other honour on offer during his 17 years with Liverpool. Scoring 185 goals from 710 games, the famous Champions League win against AC Milan in Istanbul in 2005 is the undoubted highlight of his elite career.
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And the former midfielder was always destined for greatness, with it clear even when he first joined the club’s Academy as a nine-year-old in the late Eighties at a time when the Reds were still the best side around. By the time he broke into the first team 10 years later, Liverpool had been knocked from their perch.
Former Reds defender Stig Inge Bjornebye only made seven appearances alongside Gerrard, with the Norwegian ultimately falling out of favour with manager Gerard Houllier just as the then-teenager made the step up. He was in the starting XI when the midfielder was handed his debut and first start, however.
Gerrard’s name might not have even been on the back of the programme the night he made his Liverpool debut, against Blackburn Rovers in November 1998, leaving Kopites to wonder ‘who is this kid?’ But having joined the club himself in 1992, Bjornebye had long since been made aware of this skinny young midfielder progressing through the Reds Academy.
Supporters weren’t left asking such a question for long, of course, but having monitored Gerrard’s progress in the youth ranks, the wing-back was already convinced Liverpool’s latest young starlet was destined for greatness.
“With Steven Gerrard, he was with the Academy,” Bjornebye recalled in an exclusive interview with the ECHO. “I remember I used to walk over, because they were training when we stopped our training.
“I walked over to Steve Heighway, who was the Academy Manager at the time, and stood and watched their training with him sometimes. He pointed out Steven Gerrard really early and he said to me, ‘You need to watch this kid!’
“He was skinny and hadn’t grown a lot, but you could tell really early that he was a special player. The rest is history. He was a fantastic player.”
While Bjornebye might have had limited time on the pitch with Gerrard as his own Liverpool career came to an end, it was a different story when it came to the likes of Michael Owen and Jamie Carragher. The Norwegian actually set up both players’ first goals for the Reds, and again knew they were both youngsters to watch.
“Michael Owen was always mentioned because there was a young kid who developed really fast and who was really quick,” he said. “He was mentioned all the time and then all of a sudden he was there.
“And he was ready from day one, it was unbelievable. He just went straight at it. I played him in to score on his debut against Wimbledon. Again, the rest is history.
“With Carragher, he trained a lot with the first team, from the Academy. And did well. He developed really fast.
“I think I set up his first goal too, against Aston Villa from a corner I think. It was an impressive debut, and also had an impressive career!”
Gerrard, Owen, and Carragher were ultimately all at the start of their Liverpool careers at a time when Bjornebye was nearing the end of his own time with the Reds. However, he did play alongside a number of other club legends during his eight years at Anfield.
The likes of John Barnes, Robbie Fowler, and Steve McMananaman all stand out to the Norwegian, while there were others he felt didn’t get the credit they deserved.
“In training, Steve McManaman, when he was eager to train hard, could do anything he fancied really,” he said. “But I have to mention Robbie Fowler, of course. Especially in the games.
“The relationship we had on the pitch and the understanding between us. His reactions to my crosses and the success we had. He was an unbelievable goalscorer and it was fantastic to play together with him.
“John Barnes will always be special to me because we had a strong relationship. We had good conversations and had common things we were interested in, in terms of what was going on in the world, or whether it was literature or whatever it was.
“We always had some interesting conversations. We spent time together when we travelled and in the dressing room. Also a fantastic footballer.
“But I’m trying to be careful picking out names because there were so many. So many great players and some of them didn’t get the praise they deserved either.
“For example, a fit Michael Thomas. I always thought that maybe he didn’t get the recognition that he deserved. Unfortunately he had some injuries that held him back a little bit. Overall, I’m happy to have played with so many of them!”
Bjornebye would make 184 appearances during his eight years with Liverpool, and was left with only a League Cup win to show for his efforts. Joining the Reds just as their reign as England’s dominant force came to an end, he ultimately joined an ageing side going through transition.
While the aforementioned younger players would ensure a brighter future at Anfield, further silverware still eluded Liverpool under Roy Evans. And while Bjornebye enjoyed two impressive individual seasons in particular in the mid-nineties, a broken leg and then a change of formation and manager ultimately curtailed his progress.
Yet he has no regrets. A boyhood Liverpool fan, he knows he gave everything during his time with the Reds and is grateful to have had the opportunity to represent his club for as long as he did.
“I look back holistically,” he said when reflecting on his Anfield career. “There were so many different things I experienced during my football career at Liverpool.
“It was three different managers over eight seasons, so a lot of changes in the dressing room and the squad. I played with lots of different players.
“It’s fantastic to think back and just be grateful for everything. For the downs as well, also. The disappointment makes you stronger because you learn from them.
“You can go on in life and never, ever be afraid of being put under pressure again, because you know how to deal with it. You’ve been there before.
“Being a sporting director now (at Danish side AGF Aarhus), it’s a lot more pressure to enter Anfield when it’s a full crowd and play one match than it is to be a sporting director for five years. It’s an experience for the rest of your life, as a leader, as a person, as a family man.
“It’s an important experience, and you have to make sure you take the right learning points from it and use that experience in the next phases of your life.
“Yes, there were disappointments. We should have won more titles but you can’t look back on it being disappointed. As long as you know you worked as hard as you could to achieve as much as you could.”
He continued: “I’d like to be remembered as loyal, as someone who never gave up and gave everything I could for the the supporters.
“Everything to do with the supporters, the Kop, and ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ is unbelievable. It’s so intense and Anfield is so close and intimate as a stadium, especially when it was the standing Kop.
“I had to focus on the right things in the game. I couldn’t run around looking at the supporters! But it was impossible to ignore it because the support was so strong. I’m glad I experienced it as well, it’s really something to have experienced.
“I feel now that whenever I come back to the city, come back to the club, or meet Liverpool supporters, I always feel that they approach me with a great deal of respect.
“I am so thankful for that, I am just humbled. I had some great spells with them and some fantastic experiences. It was life-changing for me. It’s such an important experience in my life.
“Not for the status or the fame, but for the actual experience and the love, the warmth, and the connection to such an important institution in international football. I’m just so thankful.”
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