Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson described his experience of playing against the six-time Ballon d’Or, winner for the first time during the 2018-19 campaign and the reason why he did not swap jerseys with the Barcelona talisman.
The 29-year-old English midfielder revealed that he took Manchester United legend, Roy Keane’s advice on board regarding swapping shirts following Liverpool’s defeat against Barcelona in the Champions League first leg, insisting he never considered asking for Lionel Messi’s jersey at the time.
Liverpool endured a 3-0 loss at the Camp Nou with a Messi double and a Luis Suarez goal earning the home side a comfortable win and advantage in the tie.
The 32-year-old Messi was in stunning form on the night and marked a superb all-round performance when he fired an unstoppable 25-yard free-kick past Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson Becker late in the game.
However, Liverpool produced a stunning second-leg comeback to book a place in the final of the competition by securing a 4-0 victory at Anfield thanks to two goals each from substitute Georginio Wijnaldum and Belgian attacker Divock Origi, before going on to lift the trophy in Madrid beating Tottenham in the final.
Looking back on the first leg against Barcelona in the semi-final, Henderson said that he refused to swap shirts with Messi because he didn’t want to seem “in awe” of the Barcelona captain, which he was warned about by former manager Roy Keane during his days at Sunderland.
While speaking to the Daily Mail, Henderson said, “As it turned out, I came on quite early as Naby Keïta got injured, It was the first time I had been on a pitch with Lionel Messi. You don’t think to yourself, ‘Oh my God, that’s him’, but there’s no question he plays the game differently to when you see him on TV. He’s so fast. Thinking about his free-kick now, I still can’t believe he scored it. I actually thought he was going to take it short. I’ve told you how good I think Alisson is, but Messi put that shot in the one area Ali couldn’t protect. The whip, the pace, the precision – it was absolutely perfect. Did I think about asking for his shirt? No. I’ve never done it. Roy Keane told me when I was at Sunderland that if you ask for someone’s shirt, it looks like you are in awe of them.”
