page_title: Steve McManaman
section_title: Early days
hierarchical_section_title: Steve McManaman / Club career / Liverpool / Early days
caption_attribution_description: English: English football player Steve McManaman during Hillsborough Memorial Match.
context_page_description: Steven McManaman is an English former footballer who played as a midfielder for Liverpool, Real Madrid and Manchester City. McManaman was the most decorated English footballer to have played for a club abroad and is regarded as one of the best players of his generation, with the UEFA website stating in 2012 that "of all England's footballing exports in the modern era, none was as successful as McManaman". He is currently a co-commentator on ESPN and BT Sport's football coverage.
  After nine years at Liverpool, during which time he won the FA Cup and League Cup, McManaman moved to Real Madrid in 1999. The transfer became one of the most high-profile Bosman rulings of all time. He became the first English player to win the UEFA Champions League with a non-English club in 2000, and two years later became the first English player to win the Champions League twice. He also won La Liga twice before moving to Manchester City in 2003. He retired from playing in 2005. Since his retirement, he has worked as a football pundit for Setanta Sports, ESPN and BT Sport.
context_section_description: McManaman was born in Bootle, Merseyside
  . He grew up as an Everton supporter, but when Everton offered the player a one-year contract (after McManaman had made a name for himself at tournaments for school and around Merseyside), McManaman's father rejected it in favour of a schoolboy contract and two-year apprenticeship offer from Liverpool (through scout Jim Aspinall and then manager Kenny Dalglish). McManaman signed as a 16-year-old apprentice upon leaving school in 1988. As an apprentice, McManaman was under the mentoring of John Barnes – one of the players McManaman was groomed to potentially replace in the long run. A natural athlete and cross country champion at school level, he developed through the youth scheme at Liverpool and signed as a full professional on 19 February 1990 in what was to be Kenny Dalglish's final full season as manager. He made his Liverpool debut under Dalglish as a substitute for Peter Beardsley in the Football League First Division on 15 December 1990, in a 2–0 league win over Sheffield United at Anfield, and made his full debut the following season (by which time Graeme Souness had become the new manager) in a 2–1 win over Oldham Athletic; a game in which The Guardian newspaper reported that he "ran his legs into the ground" all day and assisted his mentor Barnes in scoring the late winner by flicking on Mark Walters' cross. He scored his first ever professional goal with a diving header four days later on 21 August 1991 in the 2–1 defeat to Manchester City at Maine Road.
  The 19-year-old McManaman quickly became a regular first team player in the 1991-92 season, making 51 appearances in total in only his first full season – opportunities in the first team coming as a result of then manager Souness' decision to sell several ageing players; as well as when John Barnes suffered a career threatening Achilles Tendon injury. McManaman was deployed as a left or right sided forward, backing the club's new signing Dean Saunders – a move Saunders reluctantly accepted at first, having realised that Souness "had [no choice but] to bring kids like McManaman into the team before they were properly ready." Saunders began to change his mind as the season progressed – following McManaman's ability to form an attacking partnership with him – with McManaman managing to create and score several goals across the league and in the side's run to the Quarter-Finals of the UEFA Cup, as well as in the FA Cup, eventually collecting a FA Cup winner's medal. In that 1992 FA Cup Final where Liverpool triumphed 2–0 against Sunderland, McManaman was also named the man of the match having set up the winner for Michael Thomas despite being the youngest player on the pitch. McManaman's performances saw him described by Ian Rush as the most promising young player at Liverpool at the time.
caption: McManaman at a memorial match for Liverpool in 2009.
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