Number 1 at Liverpool. Who performed under this number

In modern football, the game number is an important attribute of any football player. But it was not always so. For the first time in the history of football, numbers on players’ jerseys appeared on October 13, 1928, in England, when the players of London’s Arsenal and Chelsea entered their matches with numbers from one to eleven on their backs.

In constant use, the numbers were fixed only about ten years later, but until the mid-90s of the XX century, the starting line-up players were required to have numbers from one to eleven.

And only at the 1994 World Championship in the USA a new rule was introduced, according to which each player was assigned his own number in the team. After that, the players got complete freedom to choose a game number, but still, traditionally, some numbers are associated with a certain position on the field. In addition, various two-digit numbers have also become traditional.

Today I will tell you about the players who were number 1 in the history of Liverpool. And since the number has been fixed since 1994, there will be a detailed story about these players.

Bruce Grobbelar (03/12/1981 – 06/01/1994)

Transfer amount: £250,000

Number of matches / goals / assists: 628 / 0 / 4

Win rate: 57.96%

Wins: 364 Draws: 156 Losses: 108

Titles: Champion of England 1981/82, 1982/83, 1983/84, 1985/86, 1987/88, 1989/90; FA Cup 1986, 1989, 1992; League Cup 1982, 1983, 1984; European Cup 1984

Number of shutouts: 267

Grobbelar signed a one-year contract with the Vancouver Whitecaps in November 1978, having traveled three continents in four days and played two games in as many days, initially as backup to former West Ham star Phil Parks. Unable to force him out of the starting XI, Grobbelar was loaned out to fourth division club Crewe Alexandre, making his English league debut on Christmas Day 1979 and playing regularly for the railroad until spring. With the departure of Parkes, Grobbelar finally became a regular Whitecaps player in the 1980/81 season, attracting many fans from England, most notably Bob Paisley, the Liverpool manager.

The Zimbabwean was in the thick of things, playing just three friendlies for Liverpool, when Clemens left Liverpool for Tottenham, two weeks before the start of the 1981/1982 season. Grobbelar made several mistakes at the initial stage, but gradually joined the role of Liverpool’s main goalkeeper. Grobbelar himself recalls this as a baptism of fire:“One fan wrote to me regularly. He said that he had been watching football for 32 years, and if Tommy Smith were still the captain, he would have broken my legs three times already. It was one of the most pleasant letters. I also started hearing insults from some of the fans and took them to heart. It hurt me that our own fans were shouting insults.”