The plaudits for Steven Gerrard have been plentiful since our legendary former captain announced his retirement on Thursday.
What’s perhaps most impressive is the number of legends that have taken the time to congratulate Gerrard on his marvellous career.
So far, the likes of Kaka, Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, Ronaldinho and Lotthar Matthaus have posted messages thanking the 36-year-old for his contribution to the world game over the past 20-dd years.
Interestingly, Jamie Carragher also told a story about Gerrard at his peak, in which Real Madrid legend Raul came and asked our former centre-back if the Spaniards had a chance of acquiring him in summer 2009.
Gerrard had just put them to sword in the Champions League, orchestrating a 4-0 pummelling at Anfield in one of the defining performances of his career.
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Carragher told talkSPORT: “I heard you before talking about Barcelona and I agree to an extent.
“I don’t think he would have been suited to them as he played a different type of game, more all action.
“He’d have been a lot more suited to Real Madrid.
“We beat Real Madrid 4-0 at Anfield and Raul came up and asked if he’d go to Real Madrid in that summer.
“So that is how strong the feeling was from Real Madrid.
“The actual captain [was] asking if he’d sign!
“I obviously never wanted him to go, but my advice to Stevie was there is only two clubs you’d go to – and that’s the Spanish giants.”
Thankfully, Gerrard stayed with us until 2015, when he headed to MLS for a swansong with LA Galaxy. Now though, he’s on the verge of rejoining Liverpool as a youth coach and it’ll be fantastic to have our greatest ever captain back on the payroll.