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14 Years of dedication to club and city

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When a young Jamie Carragher stepped onto the Anfield turf in January 1998 to replace Rob Jones and make his Liverpool league debut, many would have not expected that, for the next 12 years, he would be an integral part of Liverpool Football Club. The youngster from Bootle started out his career as a striker for Liverpool Reserves but it was soon clear to see that, with his leadership qualities and fearless style of play, Carra would make a fierce, tough-tackling defender. One thing that few people anticipated was that, 636 appearances and 5 goals later, James Lee Duncan Carragher would forever go down as one of the greatest defenders to ever play for Liverpool.

As well as being an outstanding defender for the best part of the last decade, Carragher has always managed to keep himself to himself and has always had the ability to keep his private life out of the spotlight. The few occasions Carra has made the headlines it has always been for the right reasons. A brilliant example of the generosity of Carragher and his family is the current charity that was founded by Jamie Carragher, ’23 Foundation’. The slogan of the foundation is ‘giving local kids a chance’ which gives you a rough idea of what it is all about and shows you just how much Jamie Carragher cares about Liverpool and the people of the city.

Carra is what you would describe as a proper athlete; he keeps himself in brilliant condition and has only ever suffered one or two serious injuries throughout his career. One of these was a broken leg back in 2004 which was inflicted on him through a horrendous tackle by then Blackburn Rovers defender Lucas Neill and was something that Carragher could not have possibly avoided, regardless of his physical condition. Even when Jamie is physically beaten he has never given up, a perfect showing of this was in Istanbul in the Champions League Final when Carragher, even though he was riddled with cramp and overrun with fatigue, showed the fighting spirit that is the heartbeat of our club. Many people, including our own captain Steven Gerrard, believe that if it wasn’t Carragher’s heroic performance in Istanbul, Liverpool would not have won that match and lifted the trophy.

Jamie Carragher is the definition of versatile. The defender has played in pretty much every position for the club and, as much as he favours the centre-back role, has never complained about having to fill in at an unfamiliar position, encapsulating his passion and commitment for the cause of Liverpool Football Club. Saturday 4th September marks the testimonial of Jamie Carragher and if any one player deserves the perfect testimonial it is our scouse centre-back. The game will be less of a marker for the end of a brilliant career and more of a celebration to the achievements of Jamie Carragher in what has been a successful 14 years so far on the frontline for Liverpool Football Club, fighting tooth and nail to push his club towards the forefront of world football.

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4 comments

  • Ste says:

    He made his league debut in January of 1997 at Anfield v Aston Villa actually, and he started the match by the way (in midfield).

  • peter says:

    ste.. carra made his liverpool first team debut as a substitute in a league cup semi final 2nd leg at anfield

  • stan howard says:

    well done jamie but i must take issue with you, i’m no lover of souness but to blame him for liverpools downfall is very wrong, lets all not hide from the fact of what went on during his tenure as our manager, look at the pakistan cricketers and it might jog your memory.
    david moores and other greedy shareholders are to blame for the present mess, and various managers losing their way (including souness) are to blame for the rest. we have several times been within one or two buys of being there but each time no one was bought or as with last season the wrong ones were bought.

  • stan howard says:

    sorry jamie but i must take issue with you again, jamie stated other managers critcised us and hated us and named steve bruce and martin o’neil, and jamie said they were right, oh no the were not they were both wrong – these managers had a tiny fraction of what our club had to put up with with players being unsettled but we never moaned hane we berated barcelona ? no jamie your wrong you can also add allardyce and mark hughes to the list – do you see a pattern there jamie – yes three are your idol ferguson’s mates. hughs is the biggest hypocrite in football. benitez was to blame for lots of things but you blame him foe everything and your wrong, your mate houlier is not half the manager benitez is,

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