Where Are They Now? Liverpool's 2005 Champions League Winners
By Chris Deeley
16 years now, since Liverpool won on that famous night in Istanbul. 16 years, three more finals, one more win – but none quite as dramatic as their recovery from 3-0 down at half time against Milan.
Time passes though, and people move on. None of the 14 players on the pitch that night are still with the club in any kind of full-time capacity... so where are they?
Jerzy Dudek
After Dudek retired at Real Madrid (after two league games in four years, obviously) he got bang into motor racing – but not before coming out of retirement after two years away...to play for Poland against Lichtenstein and get the 60th cap he needed to be inshrined in the Polish football hall of fame.
He also plays a lot of golf (obviously, he's a retired footballer), done some race-car driving and has been well into the coronavirus lockdown bread-making thing. Nice one.
Steve Finnan
Probably still working in property development in London, but he's a hard man to get hold of post-retirement. Just ask the people who couldn't track him down for an Istanbul 10th anniversary event, and had to resort to a viral #FindSteveFinnan Twitter campaign in an attempt to reach him.
He didn't go.
Jamie Carragher
He's in the Sky Sports studio, ain't he.
Carragher – infamous spitting incident aside – has worked hard to turn himself into one of the more clear-minded pundits currently working on British TV, and his Monday Night Football clinics with Gary Neville are as close as it gets to appointment viewing at the start of the week.
Sami Hyypia
After retiring at the start of the 2010s, Hyypia went into coaching – starting as Finland's assistant manager and moving on to the big job at Bayer Leverkusen; the last club he'd played for.
He joint-managed the team to third place in his first season, and took the reins full-time in his second. He was gone by April. That led to a stint in charge of Brighton, where he won three league games out of 22 before being fired, and then to FC Zurich in Switzerland – who were relegated after he led them to five wins in 26 league games. He is currently the assistant at Finnish side FC Haka.
Djimi Traoré
Wahey! Finally, someone who's still working at a football club! And it's DJIMI TRAORE! The six-time Mali international bounced around England and France for a few years after he left Anfield in 2006, before heading out to Seattle for a little dabble in MLS.
It was in the Pacific Northwest that he scored the first league goal of his career – a scrappy 94th-minute winner, lashing home a loose ball that bounced to him in the box – and he seemed to enjoy the experience so much that he stayed at the club after his retirement, joining the coaching staff.
Xabi Alonso
Left Anfield for about £30m, won the World Cup, won La Liga, won the Champions League again, went to Bayern, won the Bundesliga three times, retired, continued to be devastatingly handsome.
Since then, he's completed his UEFA Elite coaching badges (along with Raúl, Xavi and Victor Valdés, imagine being that teacher) and taken over as the manager of Real Sociedad's B team; 15 years after leaving the Basque Country for Merseyside.
He's still handsome.
Luis Garcia
Ah, the normal post-Liverpool career. Atlético, Racing Santander, Greece, Mexico, India, Australia.
And now punditry! So that's nice for the boy.
Oh, he's also recreating his ghost goal in his back garden while things are all locked down.
Steven Gerrard
He's Rangers' title winning manager. You know that. Everybody knows that.
John Arne Riise
Another Istanbul veteran who moved out to play in the Indian Super League near the end of his career, Riise spent time with Channaiyin and the Delhi Dynamos before hanging up his boots in 2016.
He didn't get involved in the club game for a little while, but took the role of sporting director at Maltese club Birkirkara last year...only to leave a few months later.
Harry Kewell
Before there was 'Frank Lampard's Derby County', before there was 'Lee Bowyer's Charlton', there was Harry Kewell's Crawley Town. And don't you forget it.
The EFL's first Australian manager did a good enough job at Broadfield that he was poached to replace Kevin Nolan at Notts County after a season and a bit. After 14 games there, he then spent not-quite-a-season as boss at Oldham in 2020/21.
Milan Baroš
Milan Baros is still playing football!!!!!! He doesn't have long hair!!!!!!! He looks like his face has been carved out of the side of a mountain!!!!!!
After his fourth (!!!) spell at Baník Ostrava, 39-year-old Baros dropped down a few levels to join FK Vigantice, which - just in case you didn't know - is in the sixth-tier of Czech football.
Vladimir Smicer
Retired about a decade ago and took up a role with the Czech national team for a while. Stood for the European parliament in 2014 on the platform of reducing obesity in children, but said it was 'not my ambition to be an MEP'. Good thing too, because he wasn't elected.
Posts a lot of golf snaps on Instagram now. That's about that.
Didi Hamann
If you watch football TV, you will see Didi Hamann talking at some point. He's all over the gaff as a mic for hire – especially since his one managerial job ended in a record of three wins from 19 league games and a speedy resignation.
Djibril Cissé
He's a DJ now. Obviously he's a DJ. Has any footballer in the whole of the 2000s screamed 'I'm going to be a DJ the second I retire, and possibly before that' more than Djibril Cisse? THE FIRST TWO LETTERS OF HIS NAME ARE 'DJ' FFS.
For more from Chris Deeley, find him on Twitter at @ThatChris1209!