Why Reds captain Henderson didn’t want Messi’s shirt after semi-final win

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Jordan Henderson says he did not want to swap shirts with Lionel Messi after the second leg victory over Barcelona in the Champions League semi-final – because that was what Roy Keane told him should happen.

The Reds captain explained that he would never ask for an opponent’s shirt after a game on the advice of the former Manchester United midfielder, who he worked with during his time at Sunderland as a young player.

Henderson told the Daily Mail: “Did I think about asking for [Messi’s] shirt? No. I’ve never done it. Roy told me when I was at Sunderland that if you ask for someone’s shirt, it looks like you are in awe of them.

“As it turned out, I came home with Luis Suarez’s shirt. Luis is a good lad and he gave me it as a gesture as we had played together for Liverpool. I don’t know what he’s done with mine.”

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That seems like a sensible attitude to take, even if it did come from Keane!

Henderson has been excellent in the last few months, and while he would have been disappointed not to get his hands on the Premier League trophy, the Champions League is not a bad alternative.

Beat Spurs on Saturday night to lift the Reds’ sixth European Cup, and he will have cemented his name in the Liverpool history books forever.

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