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Steve McManaman is congratulated by team-mate Karl-Heinz Riedle after scoring for Liverpool against Celtic in September 1997
Steve McManaman is congratulated by team-mate Karl-Heinz Riedle after scoring for Liverpool against Celtic in September 1997. Photograph: Nick Potts/Action Images
Steve McManaman is congratulated by team-mate Karl-Heinz Riedle after scoring for Liverpool against Celtic in September 1997. Photograph: Nick Potts/Action Images

Golden Goal: Steve McManaman for Liverpool v Celtic (1997)

This article is more than 5 years old

The midfielder was the Merseyside club’s most consistent attacking threat for a decade and dazzled in Glasgow

If there is a phrase that sums up Steve McManaman’s time at Real Madrid, a four-year spell in which the Spanish club won La Liga and the Champions League twice apiece, it was perhaps the one delivered by an unlikely source. “El socio del todos” – “a partner to everyone on the pitch”– is how Johan Cruyff described the Merseyside-born Madridista, and he meant it neither sarcastically nor begrudgingly.

Cruyff’s assessment was instead genuine and warm-hearted, underlining the understated yet important role the midfielder played in Madrid’s success at the start of the millennium, linking defence to Galácticos attack. This was the era of Raúl, Luis Figo, Zinedine Zidane and the original Ronaldo, and McManaman’s role was to give them the ball as often as possible.

He did it well and was undeniably a success – Real’s best player in the 2000 Champions League final and, by the time he departed for Manchester City in August 2003, admired by supporters and legendary observers alike. And what made McManaman’s time at the Bernabéu particularly noteworthy was that it required him to not only adapt but retreat. Because at Liverpool, the club he left to join Real, McManaman was very much front and centre. A fundamental attacking presence during a nine-year period that stretched across the 1990s.

Having joined Liverpool at the age of 14, McManaman made 364 appearances for the club, scoring 66 goals. He was man of the match in the two cup finals they won during the decade – the 1992 FA Cup final and the 1995 Coca-Cup final – as well as impressing in two different roles; as an out-and-out winger and a free-moving No10 under Roy Evans. He also scored arguably the Merseysiders’ most eye-catching goal of the era: the late equaliser in a 2-2 draw with Celtic at Parkhead on 16 September 1997 that McManaman himself describes as “probably my best for Liverpool”.

Before getting on to what McManaman did on that autumn night in Glasgow it is worth reflecting on his Liverpool career, for it is a curious one. ‘Macca’ was Anfield’s most consistent and crucial performer for the best part of a decade yet never received the adulation shown to some of the players who featured alongside him. Robbie Fowler was God while Michael Owen was the boy wonder. Steven Gerrard appeared right at the end of the 90s and was immediately hailed as a saviour. McManaman, meanwhile, was admired more than he was adored, then as well as now.

McManaman with the Coca-Cola Cup trophy after his decisive goals against Bolton in 1995. Photograph: Sean Dempsey/PA

He was the local lad who never fully connected with the locals, which in part may have had something to do with his boyhood affiliation to Everton, although that was not an issue for Fowler, Owen or another Red who emerged in the 90s, Jamie Carragher. Certainly the manner of his departure from the club in 1999 left a sour taste in Kopites’ mouth – a free transfer that saw McManaman take full advantage of the Bosman ruling and Liverpool miss out on a fee of around £15m which, believe it or not kids, was a lot of money back then.

It could also have had something to do with his demeanour. Shaggy of hair and baggy of shirt, not particularly vocal and a bit of ambler; McManaman gave the impression of someone who saw football as a profession rather than a vocation, something he could take or leave. In other words, the type of player any support base would find it tough to get behind.

Fowler is among those who vehemently disputes the notion that McManaman didn’t particular care about playing for Liverpool, and he should know better than most given the close relationship he formed with his fellow academy graduate, on and off the pitch. As Fowler put it in his 2005 autobiography: “Macca’s got the look of someone who doesn’t give a monkey’s but believe me, he does. He always has. He’s a great professional, never let anyone down. Intelligent enough to understand what was being asked of him in any situation, and an incredible athlete. He used to piss all of us off in training because he could run all day. It came so easy to him.”

Steve McManaman during his time at Madrid in February 2001. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian

That was the thing about McManaman; he made difficult things look easy, and nothing more so than dribbling. Out wide or through the middle, he was able to carry the ball with supreme control and speed. McManaman’s 6ft-plus frame also provided him with a long stride that allowed him to cover big distances not only quickly but efficiently. In part that came from the natural athleticism Fowler alluded to but also, as McManaman outlines in a 2001 interview, a survival instinct. “As a kid I was small and very thin – the only way I could compete was to dribble with the ball,” he said. “It was my main attribute.”

Which brings us to the goal against Celtic, capturing as it did McManaman at his free-wheeling, devastating best.

There was a minute left to play in the first leg of the Uefa Cup first-round tie that most media outlets had unimaginatively dubbed “the Battle of Britain” and Liverpool found themselves in a hole. They had taken the lead through Owen’s cool finish on six minutes but then, as was typical of the team during the 90s, complacency set in. Celtic turned the game around thanks to second-half goals from Jackie McNamara and Simon Donnelly and, roared on by a typically raucous crowd, appeared set for victory. That was until McManaman decided to do his thing.

Located on the right touchline some 20 metres inside his own half, the England winger collected the ball from Rob Jones and with one perfectly timed and weighted touch, pushed it around the onrushing Morten Wieghorst before running inside the same player in order to regain possession. With space ahead, McManaman then set off, travelling at increasing speed and with characteristic assurance, arms whirring and the ball never veering from his right boot.

He eventually found himself facing a second Celtic player but effortlessly lost him with a drop of the shoulder and a further surge infield. Two more players in green and white moved towards McManaman as he now found himself by the D of Celtic’s area but he did not panic, did not hesitate, and instead opened up his body and sent a left-footed, curling drive past Jonathan Gould’s dive and into the net via a clip of the post.

Liverpool’s 2-2 draw with Celtic in September 1997, during which Steve McManaman scored ‘probably my best’ goal for the Merseyside club.

“It’s there! It’s there! Liverpool have equalised in the nick of time!” exclaimed John Motson in commentary while from author Kevin Sampson, who was at Parkhead that night, came a wonderfully evocative take on the goal in Extra Time, his account of Liverpool’s 1997-98 campaign. “Grace, skill, tenacity and athleticism shaped into 12 fluent, determined, wonderful seconds,” he wrote. “What McManaman did added something to people’s lives. You can pay him no higher compliment.”

Cruyff tried his best to do so some years later and, in general, there is no getting away from the sense that McManaman was a player who never received the wider appreciation he deserved. An Englishman who succeeded at the very highest level abroad as well at international level, being as he was a key part of the England team that reached the semi-finals of Euro 96.

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And for Liverpool his contribution was particularly deep and meaningful. The kid from Kirkdale who cleaned John Barnes’s boots, came through the ranks and became the club’s guiding light during a painful transition. This was Liverpool’s era of the Spice Boys and being knocked off their perch, of letdowns and lingering resentment, but through it all McManaman was there, raising hopes and making a difference with his energy, application and skill.

All of which was on show in that late, game-defining moment against Celtic. As Fowler put it: “A lot of players were made to look crap by Macca.”

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