Mark Gonzalez remembers a dream coming true when he joined Liverpool.
The former Chile international signed for the Reds from Albacete in October 2005, but had to wait until the following August to make his debut having not initially been eligible for a work permit.*
He would eventually enjoy a memorable bow for the club, however, as he replaced Steven Gerrard late on during a Champions League qualifier against Maccabi Haifa at Anfield and scored the winner to secure a valuable 2-1 victory.
Gonzalez went on to make a total of 36 appearances across the 2006-07 season before leaving for Real Betis - and, on the latest edition of LFCTV’s Extra Time, he speaks fondly of his time on Merseyside.
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“I was really looking forward to playing for Liverpool from the first moment,” the 36-year-old recalls.
“I remember that my national team had to be in the first 70 in the world [rankings], and we were 75th or something like that. That was one reason [for the delay] and then I had to have 20 per cent of the games played for Chile, which I had. That was the main reason, that my national team had to be in the 70 best and it wasn’t.*
“Because of that I had to go on loan for six months to Real Sociedad [and I had] a really, really good season there. Rafa and Liverpool were saying: ‘Because the national team is 75th you are going to punish a player? It’s two different things - we want a player, we don’t want the national team.’
“Because of that very good season at Real Sociedad, I think that was the reason for me to join Liverpool after that.”
So, how did it feel to walk into the Melwood dressing room for the first time at the age of just 20?
“It was a dream come true,” he says.
“You know that normally when you join a team you just get in and you are one more player, you have your name and stuff. But I was 20 years old, I see kids today playing today at that age and I say, ‘Man, I was 20 and I was in Liverpool already!’*
“I was one more kid there admiring all the players that I few years before I was watching on television, and now they were my teammates. It was definitely a dream come true. Every day I was talking to myself saying, ‘Do you realise where you are? I mean, Steven Gerrard is your teammate, Carragher is your teammate, Sami Hyypia...’ and all the other teammates I had in that moment.
“I remember that when I joined Liverpool they had become champions of Europe, it was right after that. So I was like: ‘I’m going to join the best team in the world, now you have to show yourself.’
“I was admiring everybody and I also had big pressure on me because I was a kid and being with very, very big players. It was like: ‘Man, I have to show myself!’”
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