20th July

Happy birthdays
1938 - Legendary centre-forward ‘Sir’ Roger Hunt was born in Golborne, Lancashire. He netted 285 times in 492 reds games after signing from Stockton Heath in July 1958. His 245 League goals remain a club record, and he has the distinction of being the first red to win the World Cup while at Anfield. His club medal haul includes two League championships, FA Cup, Second Division title and FA Charity Shield.
1966 - Hunt bagged both goals as England beat France 2-0 in a World Cup Finals group game at Wembley, on his 28th birthday. Clubmate Ian Callaghan also played, winning only his second cap.

1948 - Reserves keeper Frank Lane was born in Wallasey. He signed from Tranmere Rovers for £15,000 in September 1971, but only made two first-team appearances, deputising for Ray Clemence. Unfortunately, he distinguished himself for all the wrong reasons on his debut in September 1972 by safely catching a deep cross from Derby County’s Alan Hinton and then stepping backwards over his own goal-line, to help us on our way to a 2-1 defeat.

New signings
2005 - Peter Crouch signed from Southampton for £7m on a four-year contract. He failed to score in his first nineteen reds games, but went on to bag thirteen goals in his final thirty games of his first season, helping us to claim the FA Cup in May. He went on to score 42 times in 134 outings in total before being sold to Portsmouth for a fee of up to £11m in July 2008.
2016 – Estonian centre-half Ragnar Klavan signed from Augsburg for £4.2m. He struck twice in 53 outings before moving on to Cagliari for £2m in August 2018. On the same day, keeper Ádám Bogdán joined Wigan Athletic on loan, playing seventeen times as the Latics were relegated to League One.

Keeping no more
2007 - Jerzy Dudek signed for Real Madrid after 186 reds appearances, helping us to glory in Istanbul, as well as the Worthington Cup in 2003. He turned out just twelve times for the Spanish giants before retiring in May 2011.
2018 - Danny Ward was sold to Leicester City for £12.5m after just three senior reds games. He has so only played fourteen times in cup competitions for the Foxes across his first four campaigns.

Heading off
2021 – Serbian midfielder Marko Grujić was sold to Porto for £10.5m after a successful loan spell. He had signed from Crvena Zvezda for £5.1m in January 2016, immediately being loaned back for the rest of the season. He struck once in sixteen senior reds appearances. On the same day, Nigerian forward moved on to Union Berlin for £6.5m. He had arrived from Imperial Academy for £400,000 in August 2015, spending most of his time out on loan.

2023 – Midfielder Dominic Corness joined Swiss Super League side Yverdon Sport on loan, making 21 senior appearances.
1900 - Inside-right David Wilson left the reds after just two senior appearances since arriving from East Bontas in May 1899.

In comes Razor
1994 - Neil Ruddock signed from Tottenham Hotspur for £2.5m after just one season back at White Hart Lane. The burly centre-half made an inauspicious reds debut, breaking former red Peter Beardsley’s cheekbone in Ronnie Whelan’s testimonial match. He struck twelve times in 152 first-team appearances while at Anfield, before moving on to West Ham United in July 1998 for £100,000.

Billy hitched
1946 – Billy Liddell married Phyllis at Island Road Methodist Church in Garston, just three days after Bob Paisley had got wed.

Debuting in goal
2007 - Bulgarian keeper Nikolay Mihaylov made his first reds appearance in our 2-0 defeat of Auxerre in Switzerland. Our goals came from Steven Gerrard and Daniel Agger.

Other recent friendlies
2016 – Keeper Shamal George made his first senior appearance, coming off the bench as an outfield player in our 2-0 win at Huddersfield Town. Philippe Coutinho had a penalty saved, with Marko Grujić on target and Alberto Moreno converting a second late spot-kick.
2015 – Danny Ings bagged his first reds goal as we beat Adelaide United 2-0 at the Adelaide Oval, with James Milner also on target.
2013 – We beat an Indonesia XI 2-0 in Jakarta to claim the Standard Chartered Trophy, with Philippe Coutinho and Raheem Sterling on target.

1997 - John Barnes was on the scoresheet as we drew 1-1 with Danish side Brøndby IF, with new goalkeeping signing Jørgen Nielsen playing his first reds game.
1999 - We beat Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-0 at Molineux, thanks to goals from Robbie Fowler and Karl-Heinz Riedle.

Double trouble
2021 – We played two thirty-minute pre-season games in Salzburg, first drawing 1-1 with Wacker Innsbruck as left-back Owen Beck, centre-half Ben Davies and midfielders Kaide Gordon and Tyler Morton all appeared in the first team for the first time as Divock Origi scored from the spot. We then drew 1-1 with VfB Stuttgart as right-back Conor Bradley and centre-half Ibrahima Konaté played their first reds games, with Sadio Mané on target.

Back amongst the big boys
2001 - We were drawn to play either Haka of Finland or Israeli side Maccabi Haifa in a two-legged Champions League qualifier, which would be our first ever games in the new format of the European Cup.

Youngsters on target
2008 – András Simon scored as Hungary Under-19’s lost 2-1 to Germany in a European Championship Finals group game in the Czech Republic. On the same day, future red Daniel Sturridge scored his only Under-19’s goal while winning his third and last cap at this level, as England beat Greece 3-0 in the same competition, with future reds loanee Victor Moses also featuring.
1993 - Robbie Fowler struck as England Under-18’s beat the Netherlands 4-1 in a European Championship Finals group game in Walsall
1992 - Future red Nick Barmby was on the scoresheet as England thumped Poland 6-1 in Germany in the Quarter-final of the same competition.

First and last caps
2003 - John Welsh won his fifteenth and last cap for England Under-19’s as they lost 3-0 to the Czech Republic in a European Championship Finals group game in Liechtenstein. Future red Alberto Aquilani played in Italy’s 5-1 thumping of the host nation in the same competition in Balzers to qualify for the Semi-finals.
1997 - Øyvind Leonhardsen won his first senior cap as a reds player as Norway won a friendly 1-0 in Iceland, with Stig Inge Bjørnebye also featuring. On the same day, future red Vegard Heggem played for Norway Under-21’s as they lost 2-0 in Iceland.

Other internationals
2018 – Adam Lewis featured as England Under-19’s drew 1-1 with Ukraine in a European Championships Finals group game in Finland. On the same day, ex-red Bernard Diomède took charge of France as they thumped Turkey 5-0 in the same competition.
2012 – Craig Bellamy and future reds Joe Allen and Steven Caulker all featured as the Great Britain Olympic XI lost 2-0 to the Brazil Olympic XI in a friendly at the Riverside Stadium.
1995 - Future red Brad Friedel played as the USA lost their Copa América Semi-final with Brazil 1-0 in Uruguay, with future reds goalkeeping coach Cláudio Taffarel on the winning side.

Signing on
1995 - Young forward Paul Dalglish signed for Celtic Juniors. This was the first club for King Kenny’s son. He came to Anfield a year later, but only lasted just over a year, before moving to Newcastle United on a free transfer.
2020 – Forward Layton Stewart signed a new contract with the reds. The Liverpool-born lad had been at the Academy since the age of seven, making it onto the first-team bench for the first time in our League Cup Quarter-final at Aston Villa in December 2019. On the same day, Suso was sold to Sevilla from AC Milan for €24m after a successful loan spell.