Liverpool’s unsung hero found ‘safe and sound’ after bizarre campaign to find him goes viral

Steve Finnan went about his business for five years at Anfield with minimal fuss, but his dependability and consistency have been hugely appreciated by his team-mates and coaches, if not always by the wider football watching public.

Steve Finnan has had an understated but fairly outstanding career with Liverpool

It is inevitable for a club with as long and glittering a record of success as Liverpool to have nearly as many unsung heroes to cherish as glittering superstars.

Those underrated characters who quietly went about their business with minimal fuss and provided the platform for their more heralded peers to grab the headlines, glory and flattery.

Each era has brought forth footballers whose hard work and consistency have gone largely unnoticed by many and have often only been truly appreciated by their teammates who have been able to see firsthand what they have brought to the team.

From the club’s main appearance holder Ian Callaghan, whose redshirt tally of 857 matches is unlikely ever to be broken, and Geoff Strong among Bill Shankly’s sixties stalwarts to Ronnie Whelan, Sami Hyypia, Dirk Kuyt and the more recent pairing of Nat Phillips and Rhys Williams whose herculean efforts during the defensive crisis that threatened to destroy Liverpool’s title defense following their long-awaited 2020 Premier League title triumph, unlikely candidates stepped up and wrote the their names in Anfield folklore.

There is one such example, however, that has inadvertently risen to the kind of prominence that no one could ever have expected given his constant, unspectacular performances and persona of him. Steve Finnan came to Merseyside in the same low-key way that marked his rise from non-League level to international level and caused one of the most talismanic figures in Liverpool’s recent history to fear for his future before make an important, though important, unfortunate.

role in one played the club’s most legendary wins and ended his career with a unique record unmatched by any other in English football history.

Such a feat would have been unimaginable and made all the more enjoyable for the Republic of Ireland international as, like so many young players, he struggled when trying to make his first breakthrough into the professional game.

Although born in Limerick, Finnan’s family lived in the south of England when he was a teenager and he was rejected by both Wimbledon and Crystal Palace following legal cases with the two clubs in the South London.

He considered leaving behind his dream of being a footballer and working as a bricklayer for the family construction company while playing outside the league for Welling United before finally getting his big break at the age of 18. when born in 1995 signed for Birmingham City. A loan and permanent move to Notts County followed, where he played 80 league games over two seasons before catching the eye of Kevin Keegan. Backed by funds from Harrods owner Mohamed Al-Fayed, the former Liverpool and England legend had returned to Fulham management following his memorable spell at Newcastle United in the mid-1990s and identified the young full-back as someone that could help him. mission to return the third-tier Londoners to the top flight for the first time since 1968, paying £600,000 to take him to Craven Cottage in November 1998.

proved to be a good move for all sides as Finnan helped his new side to promotion to the First Division in May and although Keegan left his post that summer to take charge of the England international side, Finnan and Fulham’s progress they continued initially under the tutelage of former Everton midfielder Paul Bracewell and then legendary French international star Jean Tigana as the Cottagers won promotion to the Premier League as champions in May 2001, with Finnan playing in all but one game that season.

The transition to the elite level of English football was smooth for the Irishman as he not only won Fulham’s player of the year award but was also voted best right-back in the division by his fellow professionals in the PFA Premier League squad. Year, with Fulham’s creditable 13th place qualifying them for the Intertoto Cup – a trophy they would go on to win – and gave Finnan his first experience of European football.

By this stage he was already an established international for the Republic of Ireland, having come up from the under-21s to win his first senior cap against Greece in April 2000 while still playing for Fulham, and having provided the cross from which the ‘ex Red Jason McAteer scored. winner against the Netherlands to take Mick McCarthy’s men to the 2002 World Cup finals in Japan and South Korea, took part in all three of his country’s group stage matches against Cameron, Germany and Saudi Arabia to qualify for only the third advancing to the second round in their history did he score a penalty in the shoot-out as the Armata Verde’s unlikely attempt to reach the quarter-finals was rejected by Spain.

Jean Tigana’s departure that summer meant life at Fulham became more difficult with the London side narrowly avoiding relegation the following season, but Finnan’s tenacious defending, crossing ability and overall consistency saw the his name increasingly associated with the best clubs in the country and Gerard Houllier hit his stride. he paid £3.5m in the summer of 2003 to bring the 27-year-old to Anfield.

It was the culmination of a long journey for the Irishman who, while never claiming to have been a Liverpool lad, admitted he was a longtime admirer of the club and their approach, having served his time while way in straight football.

“I probably did my internship three or four times,” he told Liverpool’s official website years later.