EPL legend Jamie Carragher opens up on highs and lows of his illustrious career
Current EPL pundit and former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher gave an exclusive interview to World Football Index recently. In the conversation, he talked about Fernando Torres and Luis Suarez, Liverpool, and the Miracle of Istanbul, among many other things.
"Life is not easy right now," former EPL star admits
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the world to a standstill. With strict lockdown in places all over the world, Carragher admitted that it was tough for everyone.
"Life is not easy right now and it is the same for everybody since the lockdown. We are trying to be as creative as possible, providing content on Sky Sports and the chat shows that I am involved on two or three times a week."
The Sky Sports pundit, an EPL legend, was a one-club man. He spent his entire playing career with EPL giants Liverpool, amassing over 700 appearances for the club in all competitions. He stated that his loyalty to Liverpool had been his biggest achievement.
"Liverpool gave me an opportunity to challenge for titles, and Liverpool Football Club are a massive part of my life. It always will be and that will never change. It has been my biggest achievement that I have been a one-club man."
The former EPL defender said that there never had been any concrete offers from any other club to make him leave Liverpool.
"To be honest, I never actually had the opportunity to leave Liverpool and I do not ever remember being close to moving to another club. I only played for Liverpool, so it was never the situation where I could play in [anything other than] a Liverpool strip."
Carragher also mentioned some of the best players he had played with, including strikers Luis Suarez and Fernando Torres, who ripped apart the EPL with their goalscoring prowess.
"Yes, during my time at Liverpool there are two players that really stand out, I would say — Steven Gerrard and Luis Suarez. Fernando Torres was such a brilliant striker and I played with some great strikers. And Xabi Alonso, if you look at what he went on to do with Spain."
The former EPL star also mentioned Paul Scholes, Rio Ferdinand, John Terry and Frank Lampard as some of the best English players he had played with. Speaking about his England career, Carragher said that he did not have fond memories of playing for the national team.
"A lot of my England caps were coming on at half-time or coming on as a substitute. I never really had a spell of starting five or six games on the bounce at international level, and that was due to the strength of players in my position which was very tough at the time."
He further went on to say,
"I am proud of what I have got, but I can’t say I look back fondly on those caps and my performances and certainly how the team did."
Carragher spoke fondly of the Miracle of Istanbul when the EPL giants beat AC Milan in incredible fashion to win the Champions League.
"At 3-1 we were just pleased that we got a goal and that gave us a bit of hope, but 3-2 just gave us a huge amount of belief that we were going to get back into the game. When we were level we felt that AC Milan were not superhuman like we thought they were in the first- half."
With the EPL returning this week, Carragher will return to his Sky Sports duties as a football pundit and commentator.