Liverpool Hall of Fame John Barnes Dalglish Kevin Keegan Michael Owen

John Barnes

Barnes was born Born in Kingston, the capital of the Caribbean country of Jamaica, Barnes' family moved to England when he was young, and he was a member of the school's football team when he was a student. Soon, his outstanding football skills were attracted by Watford Football Club, so he took it under its ownership. In 1981, he played for the club for the first time and performed well. In that season, the team was outstanding with Barnes. The stable performance promoted the club to League One, the highest level at the time, and helped the club advance to the League Cup final in 1984, but lost to Everton in the final. Barnes' speed and skills on the court made him recognized by the national team leader Bobby Robson and became a member of the national team.

After being selected for the national team, on June 10, 1984, Barnes scored a goal in an away friendly match against Brazil, which astonished the fans and subsequently became famous. At the same time, many players England fans also have great expectations for him, but unfortunately, his performance in the club is in sharp contrast to that in the national team. In the national team, he played 79 games and scored 12 goals, and his performance was mediocre. More subjective fans believe that Barnes simply did not perform as well as a national team player.

In the 1986 World Cup, Barnes played in the quarterfinals. Before the 75th minute of the game, England was still trailing Argentina 0-2. After that, Barnes unexpectedly performed well. , he assisted his teammates and scored a goal, but unfortunately he lost to Argentina 2-1.

One year after returning to China, Barnes transferred to Liverpool for 900,000 pounds. In the first year of the new club, Barnes helped the club win the league championship, but in the FA Cup They failed to win the championship, but no matter what, Barnes was one of the heroes of Liverpool winning the league. In the same year, Barnes showed his musical talent to the public, and the song he sang as the lead singer became the third place on the British pop song chart. The following year, Barnes helped the club defeat Everton 3-2 in 120 minutes and regain the FA Cup they had lost a year ago, but they could not retain the league championship.

In the early days of Barnes' time at Liverpool, he was already discriminated against by visiting fans. After Barnes played a friendly match against Brazil, the racists even suggested that England only won 1-0. It's because of Barnes's existence, but Barnes is used to it.

In 1990, Barnes not only scored 22 goals and became the club's top scorer, but also won the league championship again for the club. In the World Cup of the same year, Barnes scored a goal against Belgium in the round of 16, but it was disallowed. Fortunately, he defeated Belgium 1-0 in overtime. Afterwards, in the semi-finals, England played against Germany. During the exchange of penalty kicks, Barnes became one of the players who "entertained guests". As a result, they lost to Germany 3-4 and returned home early.

One year later, Barnes scored 26 goals in Liverpool and became the club's top scorer with Ian Rush. Later, Barnes began to promote new stars for the national team, such as Kona and McManavin. With the cooperation of the young players he trained, Barnes won the league championship in mid-1995. In August 1997, Barnes left Liverpool and moved to Newcastle United. Barnes played 406 games for Liverpool and scored 107 goals.

After Barnes moved to Newcastle United, he did not win any championships during his short period of playing for the club. Later, Barnes moved to Charlton, but his effectiveness was short-lived.

After his playing career ended, Barnes became the manager of the Celtics, one of the top teams in the Scottish Premiership. Unfortunately, it turned out that he was not suitable to be the team manager. Barnes later turned into a football critic.

During his playing career, he won the English Footballer of the Year award twice in 1988 and 1990 and the PFA Footballer of the Year (1988).

Dalglish

On March 4, 1951, Dalglish was born in Dalmallock, Scotland, a small city east of Glasgow. Kenny showed his talent for football very early on. He scored two goals on his debut for the Scotland 15-year-old youth team. The opponent was Northern Ireland, and then tied with the England team 1-1. The newspaper at the time was That’s how he describes his “genius ball handler.”

There is no doubt that Dalglish will become a professional athlete, but which team can get this talent. The young man's crush was on a homeless man, but he never called. He also had a trial with West Ham, but again to no avail. Everyone knows the final result. As the son of a Christian, he joined the Catholic team, the Celtics.

The signing process was simple. Celtic's legendary coach Jock Steyn asked assistant Sean Fallon to meet with Dalglish, and then signed the contract in front of their parents. . Then young Kenny was sent to Cam Bernard United as an apprentice. A year later he returned to the Celtic reserve team. After three years, Dalglish finally entered the first team. At that time, Celtic were not only the dominant team in Scotland, but also defeated Inter Milan in the Champions League and became the first British team to win the Champions League.

Steyn has high hopes for Dalglish and believes it is time to give the young man a chance. So in Celtic's game against Kilmallock, Dalglish made his debut. Originally this was a normal game, but Dalglish scored 6 goals alone, and the team finally defeated the opponent 7-2.

The following season, Dalglish became the team's main forward. He scored 41 goals in the league, and his unique back-up ball control skills were also talked about. Later, Arsenal's main defender David O'Reilly recalled: "He seemed to have hidden the ball. No matter from any angle, you could only see his back. It was almost impossible to steal the ball. ”

Although Celtic were the kings of Scotland at the time, Dalglish had already considered leaving. In Scotland, he won 5 league championships, 4 Scottish Cups, 1 League Cup, and scored 167 goals. Dalglish was not satisfied with this, he needed to strive for more honors.

Liverpool’s new talent

Just in the Scottish national team’s 2-1 victory over England, Dalglish scored, and his performance attracted the English giant-Liverpool of attention. Liverpool had just defeated Monchengladbach to win the Champions League, but the team's star Kevin Keegan decided to leave to join Hamburg.

Dalglish came to the team as Keegan's replacement, and Paisley finally got the genius of the year again, but the Red Army fans did not trust the newcomer. For them, , Keegan is the God of Liverpool, and Dalglish actually wore the No. 7 jersey left by Keegan.

But Dalglish quickly silenced the doubters. Liverpool visited Middlesbrough and he scored a goal in the first 7 minutes. After returning home, he continued to score against Newcastle. Next, in the European Super Cup, Liverpool met Hamburg - Keegan's current team. Dalglish completely eliminated the haze left by his predecessor. He led the team to defeat the opponent with a disparity of 6-0.

Dalglish was a success in his first season at Liverpool. He scored 30 goals, including Liverpool's winning goal against Club Brugge in the Champions League final. After leaving Scotland, he pursued The goal was achieved in just one year.

Who is better, Dalglish or Keegan? Former Liverpool player Tommy Smith once worked with both men separately. On this question, he answered without hesitation, "Of course it's Dalglish. His talent is like a gift from God." Red Army legend Coach Paisley also said that Kenny is the most talented player he has seen in his 40 years at Anfield.

Tragic World Cup experience

There is no doubt that Dalglish was the best player at the time. He couldn't find an opponent at the club, but the World Cup was a lingering shadow.

As early as 1974, Dalglish participated in the World Cup in West Germany. Although he did not lose a game, the team was eliminated in the group. The 1978 World Cup in Argentina was also disappointing. In the first round of the group stage, they were defeated 3-1 by Peru, and then were tied with Iran, completely losing their right to qualify. However, when facing the Netherlands, which was fully offensive and defensive, Scotland However, he defeated the previous runner-up in an upset. The 1982 World Cup also did not belong to Dalglish. Although he scored in the 5-2 victory over New Zealand, even he himself admitted that his performance was really poor. So in the game against Brazil, he could only come on as a substitute when the team fell behind. In the last game against the Soviet Union, he even sat on the bench.

The Invincible Red Army

Having made no achievements in the World Cup, Dalglish left the best of himself to Liverpool. In the 1978-79 season, Liverpool scored a record 68 points (a win was worth two points at that time), remained undefeated at home throughout the year and conceded only 16 goals in 42 games. Dalglish also scored 25 goals and was voted Footballer of the Year.

The following period was the golden era of Liverpool. The team defended the league championship, won the League Cup for four consecutive years, and won the league three times since 1981. The whole of England entered the Red Army. era. The 1983-84 season was a bumper year for Liverpool. They won the Champions League and League trophies, and Dalglish was elected Footballer of the Year again.

But then, Liverpool ran into bad luck. In the 1984-85 season, Liverpool still reached the Champions League final, facing Juventus. The well-known Heysel tragedy occurred, Liverpool lost the game 0-1, and the English team was banned from participating in European competitions. At this time Dalglish officially entered the team management as half player and half coach.

A natural coach

Although the situation was a mess, Dalglish's talent as a coach still emerged. He led the team to regain the 1985-86 league championship and won the FA Cup that year. He also became the fourth Liverpool coach to win the championship in his first coaching job after Shankly, Paisley and Fei Gan. Hands down the Coach of the Year award.

However, it has been easy to win the championship and difficult to defend it since ancient times. Liverpool got nothing in the second season of Dalglish's coaching. To make matters worse, the main forward Rush also switched to Juventus.

Dalglish began to rebuild the team. He bought Barnes and Beardsley. In the following 1987-88 season, Liverpool equaled Leeds United's 29-game unbeaten record and regained the championship.

Unfortunately, tragedy happened again. 96 Liverpool supporters lost their lives while watching Liverpool's FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield. For Dalglish, the tragedy may have hit him hardest. After the tragic accident, Dalglish, as a leader, had to try his best to conceal the pain in his heart and encourage the players to express condolences to the families of the dead and injured.

The shadow of the incident lingered, and Liverpool lost the championship that year. Although they regained their honor the next year, Dalglish could no longer bear the pressure and announced his resignation as coach. One position.

After leaving Liverpool, Dalglish came to Blackburn. There, he led the team to promotion to the First Division and won the league title two years later. Dalglish also became the third meritorious coach to lead different teams to win the league championship.

Now Dalglish has bid farewell to the coaching seat, but he still cannot do without football. Fowler had just surpassed his mark when he called the junior to offer encouragement.