Abel Xavier joined Liverpool 20 years ago this week and remains the last transfer the club have conducted with Everton
While his Liverpool career was a brief one, the club has had few characters as colourful as defender Abel Xavier.
With his bleached blond hair and beard, the Portuguese international made for an unmistakable sight during his 21 appearances for the club.
And even though this week marks 20 years since he joined Liverpool, he currently retains a place in Merseyside history as the last player to move across Stanley Park in either direction.
Xavier wasted no time in making his presence felt in a way in which he had failed to do during his two-and-a-half years with Everton too.
The Reds hadn’t had a defender score on his debut for the club for over 32 years, since Alec Lindsay had done so in a 10-0 thumping of Dundalk in the Fairs Cup (per LFCHistory).
But new boy Xavier put that run to bed after just 16 minutes of his first appearance (which, coincidentally, is the same time it later took Luis Suarez to score on his Liverpool debut).
Under the temporary management of Phil Thompson, while Gerard Houllier recuperated from heart surgery, the Reds were at Portman Road facing Ipswich Town.
Having not scored in 49 games in the blue of Everton, Liverpool’s new number three swiftly broke his duck for his new club with a deflected effort which gave his side the lead. They eventually won 6-0.
“I know my goal went in with the help of a deflection but I am definitely claiming it,” Xavier said afterwards, and who could blame him?
“I definitely want it because it’s my first goal in England,” he added.
While not quite arriving like the proverbial bus, he only had to wait two months and 10 starts for his next goal to occur, and this one might have proven even more significant.
Xavier had not been part of the squad when Liverpool had hosted Bayer Leverkusen in the first leg of a Champions League quarter-final, winning 1-0, but was included in their back four for the return match.
Future Chelsea midfielder Michael Ballack gave Leverkusen the lead on the night, to level the tie.
Three minutes before half time, Xavier got his head onto a Danny Murphy corner to score a vital away goal and put the Reds firmly in the driving seat.
However, they conceded three goals in the second half, and though Jari Litmanen also found the net, Liverpool’s first Champions League campaign ended at that point.
It left them with only the league to play for, and though they were top with three games to go, eventual champions Arsenal were only two points back and with two games in hand.
Still, they finished as runners up for the first time in the Premier League era and signed off with another thumping of Ipswich.
On that occasion Xavier assisted rather than scored the opening goal, as Anfield was able to enjoy a 5-0 win to finish the campaign.
The Portuguese defender then started the Community Shield against the double winning Gunners and was in the XI for the opening four league matches of 2002/03, only to then disappear from view.
Xavier fell down the pecking order, appearing just once more for the club, before joining Galatasaray on loan in January 2003 and making a permanent move to Hannover 12 months later.
His eventful career was far from over though. Xavier later joined Middlesbrough and while there became the first Premier League player to be suspended for using performance-enhancing drugs (though he denied any wrongdoing).
He then played for LA Galaxy before retiring, and went on to manage four teams including Mozambique, the country of his birth.
These days Xavier is most commonly seen on CNN in Portugal, passing comment on the football matters of the day.
“I really like the idea that Luis Diaz can go to Liverpool, because I think it’s the ideal structure for a player like him,” he said recently.
Hopefully that structure can help the Colombian join Xavier on the Reds’ list of debutant goal scorers later this month.
It might be a long time before anyone joins him in moving from Everton to Liverpool, after all.
