Sami Hyypiä will make his 400th Liverpool appearance the next time he appears on the pitch in a Liverpool shirt.

The Finnish international signed for Liverpool back in May 1999 for the princely sum of £2.5m from Dutch side Willem II. The centre-half has a cameraman and ex-Liverpool secretary Peter Robinson to thank for his move to Anfield. The cameraman covered a lot of football over Europe and was aware that Liverpool were after a strong centre-half. He knocked on the door of Peter Robinson and recommended Hyypiä to him. The message was passed on to Gérard Houllier and after a couple of scouting trips Liverpool had their man.

He made his debut in the opening game of the 1999/2000 season away at Sheffield Wednesday, wearing the number 12 shirt as part of a defence that also included Vegard Heggem, Jamie Carragher and Dominic Matteo. The game not only saw Sami's debut, but also those of Dietmar Hamann, Sander Westerveld, Vladimír Šmicer and Titi Camara. Hamann's debut was cut short with ankle ligament damage in the first half, while Titi Camara marked his debut with the winning goal six minutes from time.
Sami went on to miss only one game in his first season. That was the second leg of a League Cup tie against Hull City. He scored two goals in his first season, one against Manchester United in a 3-2 home defeat, and the first goal in a 4-1 win against Sheffield Wednesday, also at Anfield.

With club captain Jamie Redknapp struggling with a long-term injury, Sami took over the armband for the 2000/01 season and helped the club to one of their most successful seasons in a number of years as the Worthington Cup, FA Cup and UEFA Cup found their way back to the Anfield trophy room. When Jamie left for Tottenham Hotspur in April 2002, Sami took over the captaincy on a permanent basis.

For the beginning of 2001/02 season, Sami was given the number 4 shirt after Rigobert Song's move to West Ham United during the previous season. This was to be his only full season as captain, lifting the Charity Shield and European Super Cup as well as helping to guide Liverpool to runners-up spot in the Premiership.
The following season his form dipped and although he kept his place in the team the captaincy was handed to Stephen Gerrard in October 2002. He said at the time:

"Of course I am not happy about it. But I feel relief now that I can get used to the idea that I am not captain anymore. I don't feel myself as a worse player because I don't have the armband anymore. There was nothing dramatic over changing the captaincy. I didn't say anything because it was the manager's decision and I respect that. I believe that captaincy will bring Gerrard to a new level. He's a young and talented English player, who has a great future ahead of him. I am not happy about our start to the season. We have to play better and we will do that. If the change of captaincy helps, then it's a good decision."

Sami formed half of a solid central defence with Stéphane Henchoz over many seasons, but in the final months of Gérard Houllier's reign he found himself partnered by Jamie Carragher. That partnership continued to flourish under new manager Rafael Benítez that result in Stephan Henchoz moving to Celtic in January 2005.

He signed an extension to his original contract in July 2002 that was to keep him at Anfield until 2006. However, In August 2005 he signed another extension that keeps him here until 2008.

During 2004/05 he tired during the middle part that season and that saw Rafa Benitez bring in Mauricio Pellegrino to give the big Finn a much needed rest and keep him fresh for our victorious Champions League campaign. Pellegrino played in 13 games from January to the end of the season and was obviously only a short term buy. It was a shrewd piece of business by Rafa as playing the Argentinean in domestic games it gave Sami that rest and worked as Sami was a rock in Europe in the latter stages.

Despite the win in Turkey, Rafa targeted a centre-half as one of his priority signings. He emphasised that it was not to replace Sami or Carragher, but to give them a rest every now and then as we faced a possible season ahead of 60 or more games depending on how far we progressed in the cup competitions. The centre-half never arrived in the summer, but Daniel Agger arrived from Bromby during the transfer window of January 2006. At the time of signing he was 21 and was seen by Benitez as "Our centre-half for the next decade".

Sami kept his place with Agger getting a handful of games, Sami even managed to register his one and only FA Cup goal so far with a strike against Birmingham City, but he missed his penalty in the shoot-out against West Ham United in the final.

This season Sami found himself on the bench more and more as Daniel Agger started to build a partnership with Jamie Carragher. Before the start of this season, he had missed a total of 26 games since his debut in August 1999, but this season alone he has now missed out on 25 games.

He will become the 25th Liverpool player to reach 400 games, and his currently the fourth highest for European appearances at the club with 81 games.

In his previous 399 appearances for Liverpool he has played 273 times in the Premiership, 54 in the Champions League, 25 in the UEFA Cup, 24 in the FA Cup, 17 in the League Cup, as well as 2 Charity Shield appearances, 2 in the European Super Cup and 2 in the Club World Championship. He has made only one appearance as a substitute at West Ham United last season.

He has scored 28 times so far with 19 goals scored in the Premiership, 4 in the Champions League, 2 in the UEFA Cup and Worthington Cup and 1 in the FA Cup.

He has only been cautioned 19 times and sent-off only once. In fact he played for a total of 87 consecutive matches without receiving a card of any description from January 2000 to October 2001.