Jamie Carragher is a legend of one of England’s biggest football clubs.
Carragher, a born and bred Evertonian, went on to become Liverpool’s vice-captain for a decade, and finished his career having played only for the Reds at club level, across a senior career spanning 17 years between 1996 and 2013.
He won close to 40 England caps, and was integral to Liverpool’s UEFA Champions League triumph in 2005. Only one player — Ian Callaghan — has made more appearances for the Reds than Carragher, who tallied up 737.
However, without his grassroots upbringing, Carragher doubts he would have had the steel and determination to make himself an undroppable force in Liverpool’s defence.
In an interview with Inside The Game, one of wefundgrassrootssport’s official partners, Carragher said: “I knew players coming to Liverpool, didn’t care who they were, they wouldn’t have my personality or character. I knew it. It was impossible not to pick me.
“I knew I played a few positions but it wasn’t like Alan Harper, at Everton, where he’d play anywhere but when everyone was fit he wouldn’t play. I still played when everyone was fit. It wasn’t changing positions every few weeks. I was right-back for a season, then left-back for a season, then back to right-back for a season.
“[I’d have moved] if I’d have been [in and out]. I could never have been a sub. Not in an arrogant way. I just couldn’t have trained all week, had that mentality, but then not had a game at the weekend.
“[At school] I played three years above. I was a centre-forward. I was playing with 11 year olds, I would have been seven. Then the year after, I was playing two years above. I was a centre-forward as a kid at school, but the more I played for open age [teams], I wanted to play as a midfielder. I wanted to do everything.
“When I was playing at my own age, because I was a lot better than everyone, I almost felt like I couldn’t trust them. When you’re playing two years above, you’re getting onto their level, so I could let them do their job. But the longer it went, when I played in my own age group, I’d get so frustrated. In my own age group, I played midfield, and the teacher told me to play up front. But as soon as the teacher left, I told the other lads that I was playing in midfield!
“It was maybe from my dad. He was an amateur football manager so I’d stand next to him in the early 1980s, then in 1984-85, I started going the match – the Everton games. I was obsessed with football. I read everything, Shoot magazine, I just couldn’t get enough of it. I was always someone who thought about football, wanted to know more. Watching my dad’s team, then I’d be in the back of a van listening to men talk about football, their opinions.”
For Carragher, his all-or-nothing mentality was also instilled from a young age.
“I was a little bit different – that’s why I got to the level I got to. It wasn’t because of my ability or physicality or pace. It was my mental strength, the way I saw the game. My last season at Liverpool, I played 25 games.
“For a lot of players, that’s enough. For me it wasn’t enough, so I retired. As soon as my games went down to 25… it was: ‘I can’t train all week and not have a game. I’m out of this’.
“You probably have three groups [of players]. There’s not many who were like me. You weren’t playing for yourself or a manager, you were playing for the club and the supporters.
“Then you have a group who aren’t too obsessed with a club but they’ve got their own personal pride and that’s fine; I might have been like that if I’d had played for a different club, didn’t have the connection with the city, or I’d have played abroad. You still give everything, but it’s not the supporter mentality.
“Then you’ve got the ones who just don’t care, really. Every club’s got them. When stuff isn’t going well, fans say they’re all like that, but most of them do [care]. But there will be two or three who don’t. You’ve just got to accept that – there’s not a lot you [as a player] can do about it. But if I was a manager, I’d have a massive problem with people like that.”
But what of Carragher’s earliest grassroots memory?
He said: “I’ve got two visions as a kid. One was playing at school, and one being in the Brunswick Boys Club. I remember going in, I might have been five or six. That’s the first time I remember playing football.
“Then at school, I remember the first time we played football on the field, and the year above us were playing a proper game on the other pitch. I remember the teacher coming over and pointing to me and saying ‘You, go play on the other pitch’.”
You can watch the full interview here.