Steven Gerrard: The Super'Kop'

Steven Gerrard

Four minutes to go before the referee blows his whistle, his team’s hopes of qualifying for the next stage of Champions League hanging by a thread, a pile driver thuds into the net. The team qualifies. Next year in the finals of the same Cup, his team 3-0 down, a man bursting his lungs out in hopes of getting back into the game earns a penalty. At the end of the day, the efforts paid off. Move forward a year and in the FA cup finals, with his team’s fortune having taken a beating, two beauties manage to ditch the goalkeeper and enter the net, one with just a minute of play remaining to win the cup.

If ever there was or is one who effused passion, effort, drive, an attitude to never give up, loyalty, all in an equal quantity and in a single package, it is Steven George Gerrard.

Firmly placed in the Red and the three lions’ pantheon of footballing greats, Steven Gerrard is one of the finest specimens of modern day footballers alive today. Be it in terms of skills, efforts, drive or passion, the man doesn’t take a beating. Mark an occasion and one man who could be trusted to rise to it is him. One of the most recognisable faces of English football, Gerrard has become the saving grace of the Kop. Many a times, Captain Dependable has gone on to lift the team from one ditch towards safety.

It’s the irony of fate that he has plied his trade in an era where Liverpool have nosedived into mid table obscurity. That he hasn’t got a Premier League winners medal and still has rejected the lure of millions of dollars worth of contract money from other clubs along with guaranteed silverware, magnifies his passion for Liverpool. In the times when footballers have become mere mercenaries, Gerrard along with just a handful remains the shining light of the legion of loyal club servants.

Often heralded as the complete footballer, his talent has found him playing in all possible positions in the midfield and never has the man ever winced. The intensity, written all over his face, never leaves him even if the match has been over for a good few minutes. That intensity is what has constantly driven him to search for that extra bit all throughout his career.

Captain’s armband has only added to the sense of responsibility and only added to the diamond getting extra polished. As a captain, He has lived by the age old adage that a leader needs to lead by his deeds. His legs never stop running until being asked to. His breath never flails until the match is off.

Bill Shankly once quipped “football is more than life and death”. The man personifies the spirit. Any lesser mortal wants to be able to watch up to someone whom he can idolise, someone who would give him hope in times there won’t be any, someone who would inspire him to over exert himself that extra bit. And if all these materialise, he’ll go home happy that this was all within his powers, no matter what be the result. Steven Gerrard is the type of character that inspires one to stretch one’s limits, to pursue the unachievable. He is in essence “The Super Cop” in an Indian movie who does all by himself. That he has been doing the same for Liverpool for more than a decade now easily qualifies him as “The Super Kop”.