‘Write it in your diary’ – Liverpool player forced to deny ‘porn star’ rumors after Anfield spell
Pegguy Arphexad, who turns 50 today, has won as many medals as he has played in the Liverpool first team
Shortly before the turn of the millennium, the French Revolution began in Liverpool under Gérard Houllier.
Bernard Diomede, Djimi Traoré, Grégory Vignal and Nicolas Anelka joined the Reds under Houllier, as did Pegguy Arphexad, a name often forgotten by Liverpool supporters. Born 50 years ago today in the French overseas department of Guadeloupe in the Caribbean, the goalkeeper first arrived in the Premier League in 1997 when he joined Leicester City.
An impressive performance by the Foxes in a 2-0 win at Anfield in May 2000 helped Liverpool be denied a Champions League place the following season – but also ensured it caught the eye of Houllier, who signed him on a Bosman-style free transfer this summer. .
“They were looking for a second keeper to challenge Sander Westerveld as Brad Friedel’s contract expired,” the former Reds keeper told Planet Football when asked how the transfer happened. “When Liverpool comes you don’t have to think twice. Liverpool are a very strong team and I thought I had the opportunity to be the first goalkeeper there. When I signed I knew I would be the second goalkeeper but I thought it could be the first if I worked hard”.
Before continuing: “It’s great when the fans are behind you. You are very satisfied, because it means you are doing a good job.
“I had a great time at Leicester and would have loved to stay longer, but I had the chance to go to Liverpool. If Martin [O’Neill] had told me I was first goalkeeper, I would have stayed.”
Although Arphexad replaced Brad Friedel – who joined Blackburn Rovers the following November – as Westerveld’s main competitor at the club, he was unable to replace the Dutchman as number one that season.
The following year, Houllier brought in two goalkeepers within 24 hours in the form of Jerzy Dudek and Chris Kirkland, who sold Westerveld to Real Sociedad in acrimonious circumstances. At the time, it was believed that Arphexad would follow suit.
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However, he held on for a few more seasons to warm up on the bench in the 2003 League Cup Final against Manchester United, just as he had in his trio of successes in the 2001 Cup Final plus UEFA Super Cup and Charity Shield that year .
“You have to concentrate and work as hard as all the other players because on call-up day you have to be ready,” said Arphexad when asked about the reserve goalkeeper role. “You can’t think, ‘Why am I not playing?’ Why am I not playing?’ You just have to work hard and expect to play one day when you have a chance to be the first goalkeeper.”
He then added: “It was very frustrating because personally I think with my skills I could have been the first goalkeeper anywhere else.”
“Maybe I made the wrong decision and should have gone to a small team to become the first goalkeeper before going to a strong team like Liverpool. I don’t know. But at the I thought I had what it took to be Liverpool’s first goalkeeper.”
Arphexad made his Reds Premier League debut in a 2-1 win over West Ham United in January 2001. He went on to make five further appearances in all competitions for the Anfield club before being released at the end of his contract in the summer of 2003.
Arphexad has become good friends with Emile Heskey, with whom he played with at both Leicester and Liverpool, and admitted in 2020 that he often underestimated the striker’s impact for club and country.
He said: “I got along very well with all the players, but especially with Emile. We spent most of the time together and he was my roommate during outings.
“He was a great player and a great man. He had great skill. He was strong, fast, powerful. He was a very good player. I don’t know how many caps he has but there should have been more.
“Emile has worked so hard for the team. Maybe it was his fault that he worked so hard because he could have worked less and scored more goals.”
Released by Liverpool, Arphexad spent the 2003/04 season on loan at Coventry City. He completed five games for Sky Blues and three for Notts County while on loan at Meadow Lane.
In the 2004/05 season, he was part of the Marseille squad but did not play a single league game for the French south coast club. Then, in 2005, Arphexad decided to retire from the game.
“In France, players are not paid if they are injured. You only get paid for 90 days and after that you get nothing. But we cover them,” he said when asked about his decision to retire.
“The man who runs the company called me at the end of my career and asked if I would be interested. I passed my coaching diplomas and after that I thought: ‘Why not “I am still involved in football because we insure the player and the club.”
What followed was a stint as an expert on the former goalkeeper, who then made headlines in March 2016 – when he was forced to deny rumors he would become a star of adult cinema after retiring from football.
Rumours had spread that Arphexad had entered the pornography industry as a male actor, and was alleged to have started to forge a career in front of the camera under an alias of ‘the stopper’, but he was quick to shut them down when asked about them by the Leicester Mercury.
He said: “Look, this is a bad rumour. It’s been going round a long time. One English guy wrote on the internet years and years ago that I was doing this and now people say to me: ‘Hey, are you making porn films?’
“I haven’t made ANY porn films, okay. I don’t do that. I work for a sports insurance company. That’s what I do. Put it in your paper – I don’t do porn films, just insurance, okay?”
A version of this story was first published in September 2022.