Where are they now? Liverpool’s 2000/01 treble cup winners

Liverpool won a treble of cups in 2000/01, lifting the League Cup and FA Cup at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, before extending their reach to Europe and landing the UEFA Cup as well.

The late, great Gerard Houllier was the man in charge, assembling a team that blended home-grown talents with players that he had brought to the club from across Europe. Such was his transformation of the squad, only one inherited player that hadn’t come through the youth ranks was left by the midway stage of the treble season - and that was fan favourite Patrik Berger.

Among the last to go were defenders Steve Staunton and Rigobert Song, who left Anfield to join Aston Villa and West Ham respectively during the first half of the season. Dutch striker Erik Meijer also moved while the campaign was ongoing.

Gerard Houllier combined home-grown Liverpool players with his own signings | OLIVIER MORIN/Getty Images

The Reds needed penalties to see off second tier Birmingham in the final of the League Cup, then known as the Worthington Cup for sponsorship reasons. The FA Cup final at the same venue remains one of the more famous finals of recent times because Arsenal looked destined to lift the trophy until two late interventions from Michael Owen.

The UEFA Cup final in Dortmund that followed was a nine-goal thriller and a modern classic. Liverpool won 5-4 against Alaves, with the decisive blow an own-goal in extra-time.

Here’s a closer look at the squad that contributed to those three trophies wins and what has happened to them in the 20 years since…


Goalkeepers

Sander Westerveld

Sander Westerveld was Liverpool #1 until 2001 | Jamie McDonald/Getty Images

Sander Westerveld played 61 games for Liverpool during the 2000/01 campaign alone, but his time as number one goalkeeper was ultimately shortlived and he was immediately benched and eventually sold after an error in a Premier League game against Bolton in August 2001.

Westerveld helped Real Sociedad qualify for the Champions League and had further short spells in England with Portsmouth and Everton. He retired in 2013 after two years with Ajax Cape Town in South Africa and is a youth coach within the Dutch national setup.

Pegguy Arphexad

Pegguy Arphexad joined Liverpool from Leicester in 2000 | Jamie McDonald/Getty Images

Westerveld’s grip on the number one shirt in the treble season meant that Pegguy Arphexad was very much a benchwarmer. He played twice, both times in the League Cup, and his only two Premier League appearances in three years at Liverpool came the following season.

Arphexad was never a number one at any stage of his career and had spells with Coventry and Marseille before he retired. He currently works for a French company providing insurance for professional athletes and is the firm's European Business Officer.


Defenders

Stephane Henchoz

Stephane Henchoz was an automatic starter for three years | Michael Steele/Getty Images

Liverpool poached Swiss centre-back Stephane Henchoz from Blackburn in 1999 and he was an automatic starter for three years until home-grown Jamie Carragher began to play more and more regularly in the middle of the defence. Injuries also took their toll.

Henchoz went on to play for Celtic and Wigan, before returning to Blackburn. He retired in October 2008 aged 34 and has been a coach and manager ever since. In 2020, he was appointed for the second time by Neuchatel Xamax, his first pro club.

Christian Ziege

Injuries limited Christian Ziege at Liverpool | Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Liverpool were fined £20,000 by the FA for an illegal approach for German international Christian Ziege while he had been at Middlesbrough. He only lasted one season at Anfield and struggled for games anyway because of injuries and the form of Jamie Carragher at left-back.

Injury problems also hampered Ziege in three years at Tottenham and he retired at Borussia Monchengladbach in 2005 to move into coaching. He worked at Gladbach for several years, as well as in Germany’s national youth teams and is now in charge at lower league Austrian club Pinzgau.

Sami Hyypia

Sami Hyypia took on the Liverpool captaincy in 2000 | Mike Hewitt/Getty Images

Liverpool plucked Sami Hyypia from Dutch football in 1999 and the man mountain Finn went on to form a celebrated partnership with Stephane Henchoz. He began to captain the Reds in 2000/01, although he was later replaced by Steven Gerrard, and stayed for a full 10 years until 2009.

Hyypia’s playing career ended with a spell at Bayer Leverkusen and he immediately moved into coaching, first as an assistant for the Finland national team, then as manager back at Leverkusen. He has also managed Brighton and Zurich, and is now an assistant coach at Haka in Finland.

Vegard Heggem

Injuries meant Vegard Heggem hardly played after 2000 | Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

Injury forced Norwegian right-back Vegard Heggem into early retirement in 2003, having played only sparingly for Liverpool since he began struggling with his fitness three years earlier. Sadly, he only managed four appearances for the club during the 2000/01 season.

Heggem has moved away from football in his retirement and has become a consultant in wild salmon management in his native Norway, based back in the town of Rennebu where he grew up and started his football career with the local club.

Jamie Carragher

Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher was a left-back in 2000/01 | Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

Although he became known as one of the greatest centre-backs in Liverpool history, a 22 going on 23-year-old Jamie Carragher was Liverpool’s starting left-back throughout the 2000/01 season and played 58 times in all competitions.

Carragher spent his entire career at Liverpool, winning the Champions League in 2005 and playing 737 games by 2013 to place second on the all-time list behind only 1970s legend Ian Callaghan. In retirement, he is one of the best known pundits on UK television with Sky Sports.

Gregory Vignal

Gregory Vignal was one for the future in 2000/01 | Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

Gregory Vignal was a teenager when Houllier plucked him from French football in 2000. He didn’t play much for Liverpool before he left on a string of loans in 2003, or permanently in 2005, but he was on the bench for both the FA Cup final and UEFA Cup final in 2001.

Vignal joined Portsmouth when Liverpool released him in 2005 and played for a string of clubs in England and Europe, including Southampton, before retiring in 2013. He managed the women’s team at Rangers, one his old clubs, until he was hired as a first-team coach at Marseille in 2020.

Stephen Wright

Stephen Wright made his career elsewhere after 2002 | Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

Home-grown defender Stephen Wright emerged from Liverpool’s academy ranks around the same time as Carragher, although he couldn’t make the same permanent breakthrough, and had the best spell of his career after joining Sunderland in 2002.

Wright spent his final five years as a player at clubs over the border in Wales, first at Wrexham in the English league system, then at Aberystwyth, Rhyl and Denbigh. He started coaching at Wrexham and then began working with Liverpool once more in 2018 as a scout.

Djimi Traore

Djimi Traore was an emerging Liverpool player in 2000/01 | Shaun Botterill/Getty Images

A Champions League winner in 2004/05, Djimi Traore was just beginning to break into the Liverpool team in 2000/01 after being taken to Anfield by Houllier from France as a teenager in 1999. He played 12 times during the treble season, although his real breakout was in 2002/03.

Traore’s Liverpool career looked over without Houllier, but Rafa Benitez brought him back in from the cold in 2004/05. He became a journeyman when he did leave in 2006, finishing his career with Seattle Sounders in 2014 and has been an assistant coach at the MLS club ever since.


Midfielders

Vladimir Smicer

Vladimir Smicer later scored in the 2005 Champions League final | Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

Only injuries prevented Vladimir Smicer from becoming one of Liverpool’s best signings of the 1990s, having been bought from Slavia Prague for around £4m in 1999. He played 49 times in 2000/01, often as a substitute in the Premier League.

Smicer managed only 16 appearances in his final season in 2004/05, yet scored one of the goals in the 2005 Champions League final. He moved to Bordeaux in 2005 and retired back with Slavia in 2010, before taking a front office role with the Czech national team. He now owns a hotel in Prague.

Jamie Redknapp

Injury ruled Jamie Redknapp out of the 2000/01 season | Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Jamie Redknapp was Liverpool captain in 2000/01 but was forced to miss the entire season because of long-term knee trouble. The midfielder didn’t play a single minute of the campaign and was struck down again the following October not long after his comeback.

Redknapp joined Tottenham in 2002 and had a final spell at Southampton in 2005, making only 66 appearances in the last three years of career and calling it a day at 33. His post-football career has been in television as a main pundit on Sky Sports and a team captain on A League of Their Own.

Danny Murphy

Danny Murphy enjoyed a breakout season in 2000/01 | Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

Danny Muprhy emerged as an important player for Liverpool in 2000 and, although he wasn’t a regular Premier League starter, he still played 47 times in all competitions in 2000/01 and scored an impressive 10 goals from midfield.

Murphy left Liverpool soon after Rafa Benitez took over in 2004 and played for Charlton, Tottenham and Fulham, with his most successful spell at the latter. He retired in 2013 and has established himself as a regular pundit on BBC’s football coverage, as well as on talkSPORT.

Patrik Berger

Patrik Berger started to struggle with injuries after 2000 | Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

After his best season at the club in 1999/00, Patrik Berger was limited by injury problems in his final three years at Liverpool. He had recovered sufficiently to appear from the bench in the both the FA Cup final and UEFA Cup final in 2001 and laid on the winner for Michael Owen in the former.

Berger played for Portsmouth next, then made only 32 appearances in three years at Aston Villa. He hung up his boots at Slavia Prague in 2010 aged 36 after another injury setback. He has done media work and also remains involved with Liverpool in a ‘legends’ capacity.

Dietmar Hamann

Liverpool paid a lot to buy Dietmar Hamann from Newcastle | Graham Chadwick/Getty Images

Liverpool spent a sizeable £8m to buy Dietmar Hamann from Newcastle and the German went on to become a vital cog at the base of the midfield. Later, in 2005, he changed the Champions League final by coming on when the Reds were being overrun by AC Milan.

Hamann signed with Bolton for less than one day in 2006, before joining Manchester City. He later got into management with an ill-fated spell with Stockport County in 2011 and has mainly focused on punditry and media work since then in both the UK and Ireland.

Steven Gerrard

Steven Gerrard was still an emerging talent in 2000/01 | Michael Steele/Getty Images

Steven Gerrard had his breakout season with Liverpool in 1999/00 and finished it by getting selected for the England squad that went to Euro 2000. He was 20 during the 2000/01 campaign but still played 50 games in all competitions, starting each of the finals, and scored 10 goals.

Obviously, Gerrard went on to become a Liverpool legend, assuming the captaincy in 2003 and lifting the Champions League trophy in 2005. He left aged 35 in 2015 and spent 18 months with LA Galaxy, before coaching Liverpool’s youth sides and then taking over as Rangers manager in 2018.

Nick Barmby

Liverpool signed Nick Barmby from local rivals Everton | Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

Nick Barmby crossed the Merseyside divide for £6m in 2000 when he joined Liverpool from Everton. He was a semi-regular starter that first season, only for injuries to creep in, and joined Leeds for less than half of his initial transfer fee in 2002.

Barmby looked to be winding down his career when he joined home-town club Hull in 2004 in League One, but was part of the Tigers side that reached the Premier League. He later also managed Hull, while he joined Scunthorpe as a coach in 2019 but left after a few months.

Gary McAllister

Gary McAllister is still a Liverpool cult hero | Michael Steele/Getty Images

Despite being 35 at the time, Gary McAllister proved to be an inspired signing for Liverpool in the summer of 2000 and has become an Anfield cult hero as a result of his contributions during the treble season, including famous winners against Barcelona and Everton.

McAllister left in 2002 to become player-manager at former club Coventry and later took over at Leeds in 2008. He has had assistant roles at Middlesbrough, Aston Villa and even back at Liverpool, while he joined Rangers as Steven Gerrard’s right-hand man in 2018.

Bernard Diomede

Bernard Diomede hardly played for Liverpool | Shaun Botterill/Getty Images

Bernard Diomede had been a World Cup winner with France in 1998 and was one of his homeland’s top attacking players during his time at Auxerre in the 1990s. But his Liverpool career simply never took off when Houllier sanctioned a £3m move in 2000.

Diomede played just four times in all competitions in his debut season and left in 2004. He finished his career in France’s lower leagues and went on to become heavily involved in youth coaching, setting up his own academy and managing various France junior age groups since 2015.

Igor Biscan

Igor Biscan was a Liverpool rotation option for 5 years | Michael Steele/Getty Images

Defensive midfielder Igor Biscan spent five years as a Liverpool squad player following his arrival from Dinamo Zagreb in 2000, costing over £5m after also being tracked by the likes of Juventus, Barcelona, AC Milan and Ajax at the time.

Biscan helped Liverpool win the Champions League in 2005 and joined Panathinaikos when his contract expired, before a final spell at Dinamo Zagreb and retirement in 2012. He has since managed clubs in Croatia and Slovenia and is now in charge of Croatia’s Under-21 team.

Jari Litmanen

Liverpool fans never saw the best of Jari Litmanen | Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

Jari Litmanen became known as one of the best attacking players in Europe during his Ajax heyday in the 1990s. But he was past his peak and had struggled with injuries when he joined Liverpool from Barcelona midway through the 2000/01 campaign.

Litmanen played 32 times in his only full season as a Liverpool player, returning to Ajax in 2002 and later winding down his career in Sweden and his native Finland. These days, he serves as an adviser to the Finnish football association in Helsinki and has coached with the junior national teams.


Forwards

Emile Heskey

Emile Heskey was a success early in his Liverpool career | Alex Livesey/Getty Images

Emile Heskey was Liverpool’s club record signing when he joined the Reds from Leicester for £11m in the closing stages of the 1999/00 campaign. He is not remembered as a goalscorer but netted 22 times in his first full season in 2000/01, including 14 in the Premier League.

Heskey joined Birmingham in 2004 to make way for Djibril Cisse and carried on playing for Wigan, Aston Villa, Newcastle Jets in Australia and Bolton until 2016. In retirement, he has turned to coaching and was earning his qualifications in 2020 while helping out with Leicester Women.

Robbie Fowler

Robbie Fowler was nearing the end of his Liverpool career in 2001 | Mark Thompson/Getty Images

With Jamie Redknapp sidelined, Robbie Fowler shared the Liverpool captaincy with Sami Hyypia throughout 2000/01. That season also marked his return to form from a difficult 1999/00 campaign, although a fall out with Houllier paved the way for a £12m move to Leeds in late 2001.

After a spell at Manchester City, Fowler returned to Liverpool in 2006 and wound down his career in Australia and Thailand. He has coached in Liverpool’s academy, before heading into full-time management with Brisbane Roar in 2019 and is now in charge of East Bengal in India.

Michael Owen

Michael Owen won the Ballon d'Or in 2001 | David Ashdown/Getty Images

Perhaps the single best moments of Michael Owen’s Liverpool career were the two late goals in the 2001 FA Cup comeback win over Arsenal and eventually winning that year’s Ballon d’Or. He remained a consistent scorer but left in 2004 when Real Madrid made an offer.

Owen returned to England to join Newcastle one year later, only for injuries to dictate the rest of his career, taking in spells at Manchester United and Stoke before retiring in 2013. He has since increased his involvement with horse racing and is also a pundit and co-commentator for BT Sport.


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Source : 90min