Steve McManaman

Steven McManaman (born 11 February 1972) is an English former professional footballer who played as a winger.

McManaman signed as a 16-year-old apprentice upon leaving school in 1988.

As an apprentice, McManaman was under the mentorship of John Barnes and many regarded McManaman as a player who could potentially replace Barnes in the future.

McManaman was said to be a natural athlete; having been a cross country champion at school level.

McManaman developed through the youth scheme at Liverpool and signed as a full professional on 19 February 1990 in what was to be Kenny Dalglish's final full season as manager.

On 15 December 1990, McManaman made his Liverpool debut under Dalglish as a substitute for Peter Beardsley in the Football League First Division in a 2–0 league win over Sheffield United at Anfield.

By the following season, Dalglish had been replaced by Graeme Souness as manager.

It proved a successful decision as McManaman began mesmerising defences with runs that were later to become hallmarks of the Liverpool side of the 1990s.

On 17 August 1991, he made his full debut in a 2–1 win over Oldham Athletic.

This was a game in which The Guardian reported that McManaman "ran his legs into the ground" all day and assisted his mentor John Barnes in scoring the late winner by flicking on Mark Walters' cross.

McManaman scored his first ever professional goal with a diving header four days later on 21 August 1991, in a 2–1 defeat to Manchester City at Maine Road.

The 19-year-old McManaman quickly became a regular first team player in the 1991–92 season, making 51 appearances in total in only his first full season.

It was suggested that opportunities in the first team had come as a result of then manager Graeme Souness' decision to sell several ageing players.

Moreover, McManaman also found opportunities in the first team as John Barnes had suffered a career threatening achilles tendon injury.

McManaman was deployed as a left-sided or right-sided forward, backing the club's new signing Dean Saunders.

This was a move which Saunders reluctantly accepted at first, having accepted that Souness "had [no choice but] to bring kids like McManaman into the team before they were properly ready."

Saunders however began to change his mind as the season progressed following his observance of McManaman's ability to form an attacking partnership with him, with McManaman managing to create and score several goals across the league and in the side's run to the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup, as well as in the FA Cup.

On 9 May 1992, McManaman started in the 1992 FA Cup final as Liverpool defeated Sunderland with a score of 2–0.

McManaman was also named the man of the match, having set up the winning goal for Michael Thomas, despite being the youngest player on the pitch.

McManaman's performances saw him described by Ian Rush as the most promising young player at Liverpool at the time.

Although McManaman had a couple of quieter seasons with the advent of the Premier League, in which Liverpool initially struggled, he continued to develop a reputation as one of English football's two best emerging young wingers alongside Ryan Giggs of Manchester United.

A BBC article described the pair as able to "embarrass defences with their mazy runs, which too often lack the finishing touch they deserve".

In the 1993–94 season, McManaman showed fine form with two goals against Swindon Town and some assists including a spectacular run and assist against Tottenham Hotspur.

However, this form faltered following a drop in confidence after an incident with Bruce Grobbelaar towards the end of a Merseyside derby, when the players exchanged blows after Grobelaar lambasted McManaman for a poor clearance which led to a goal being conceded (an incident later named as one of the top five bust-ups between team-mates in Premier League history).

At the beginning of the 1994–95 season, McManaman signed a new million-pound contract, and was given a central, freer role by new manager Roy Evans, who wanted to utilise McManaman's natural running and dribbling ability to drift all over the park.

The 1994–95 season also proved to be a turning point for Liverpool after the lack of success during the previous two seasons.

That season, he collected a League Cup winner's medal after scoring twice in his side's 2–1 win over Bolton Wanderers; such was his performance that fans named it "The McManaman Final".

For his second Wembley final appearance in succession he was awarded man of the match, earning the Alan Hardaker Trophy and a tribute from guest of honour, celebrated veteran winger Sir Stanley Matthews, who had a personal word with McManaman before the final, saying: "I like the way you dribble," adding [to the press] after the final, "He reminds me of me when I was playing ... I wish there are more dribblers like him."

During his nine years at Liverpool, he won the FA Cup and League Cup, while individually, he was the Premier League's top assist provider for the 1995–96 season and was named in the PFA Team of the Year for the 1996–97 season.

He is ranked fifth on the Premier League all-time assists charts for number of games it took for a player to make 100 assists and is also the fifth-youngest player to make 100 assists in Premier League history, with only Thierry Henry, Cesc Fàbregas, Ryan Giggs and David Beckham above him on the list.

McManaman moved to Real Madrid in 1999, with the transfer becoming one of the most high-profile Bosman rulings of all time.

Amongst his accomplishments with Madrid, he won La Liga and the UEFA Champions League twice, becoming the first English player to win the latter trophy with a non-English club, and later became the first English player to win it for the second time.

An early Galáctico, he won eight trophies and played in 11 cup finals in four years and made the semi-finals of the Champions League in each of his four years at the club.

He went on to play two seasons at Manchester City before retiring in 2005.

Since his retirement, McManaman currently works as a co-commentator on ESPN and TNT Sports (formerly BT Sport)'s football coverage, as well acting as a La Liga ambassador.

He previously worked as a football pundit for Setanta Sports.

McManaman was born in Bootle, Liverpool.

He grew up as an Everton supporter, with his boyhood heroes in football being the Everton players Bob Latchford and Duncan McKenzie.

However, when Everton offered the player a one-year contract, after McManaman had made a name for himself at tournaments for school and around Merseyside, McManaman's father rejected it in favour of a schoolboy contract and two-year apprenticeship offer from Liverpool (through scout Jim Aspinall and then manager Kenny Dalglish).

Nicknamed "Macca", he is one of the most decorated English footballers to have played for a club abroad, with the UEFA website stating in 2012 that "of all England's footballing exports in the modern era, none was as successful as McManaman".