Trent Alexander-Arnold has had a brilliant career so far with the Reds, and he’s still only just 20.
The Academy graduate has become the best right-back in world football over the last 12 months, since he established himself with his boyhood club.
There’s so much more to come from him in the next few years, where his influence will only continue to expand, but he has been reflecting on his career so far while writing for the Player’s Tribune in an excellent piece.
Alexander-Arnold clearly remembers the moment he became an avid Reds fan: just a couple of months before Istanbul in 2005. His mother took him and his brother Tyler to Anfield for the game against Juventus.
He recalled: “European nights at Anfield are just different. To really be there in the Main Stand, it’s unreal. You just try to take it all in. You just hope you remember everything in the morning. The floodlights beaming down onto the pitch. The energy coming from the Kop.
“The moment that I’ll always have stuck in my head was when all the ball boys walked out to the centre circle. There were like 20 of them, and they were waving that massive red flag. And then the Champions League anthem started playing.
“Then the Kop started to sing, “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” And the power of that … literally, I just fell in love with it. All of it. I knew what I wanted to do with my life.”
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It means so much for all of the players who play for the club, but for Alexander-Arnold, it has to mean just a little bit more.
He’s clearly an exceptional player, but the fact he grew up literally a stone’s throw from Melwood makes him even more likeable. There’s nothing like a local lad living the dream and reprenting his boyhood club – and Alexander-Arnold is doing that with distinction so far.