Former Liverpool goalkeeper Scott Carson has retired from football at the age of 40, following a 22-year career.
Carson spent the past six years with Manchester City, becoming well-known as a big behind the scenes figure at the Etihad Stadium.
Long before he was living the life at City, the goalkeeper played nine times for Liverpool, with the last of those appearances arriving 20 years ago, in 2005.
Carson was also part of the Liverpool squad who miraculously won the Champions League in 2005. Only 19 at the time, the former Leeds United keeper made one appearance in the competition that season.
The youngster was also on the bench during the final in Istanbul, watching on as Jerzy Dudek put in one of the greatest goalkeeping displays in Liverpool history.
Having been part of the 18-man squad in the Turkish capital, Carson was given a medal for his involvement. But speaking 15 years later, in 2020, the Cumbrian admitted that he soon tried to give the medallion away.
Scott Carson wanted Chris Kirkland to have Champions League medal
2005 was a funny year for Liverpool goalkeepers. With Rafa Benitez not entirely happy with Dudek, he utilised both Carson and Chris Kirkland during the campaign.
Only 24 at the time, Kirkland was also a promising young goalkeeper. The Liverpool academy graduate played four times during the Champions League campaign, but missed the final through injury.
And as he admitted to GOAL, Carson felt that Kirkland was perhaps more deserving of a medal than he was.
“I felt strange, to be honest,” he said in May 2020. “I’d not been at the club long, so it didn’t really feel like my success, if you get me? I didn’t feel like I’d earned it.”
“You see some people at the front of the celebrations and they have barely played. That always sat uncomfortably with me. Josemi was one of them. The whole time I was there, I don’t think I spoke to him once. I’m not sure he spoke a word of English to be honest, but he made sure he was front and centre when the cup was being lifted!
“I’ve seen other players do it, and you think ‘what are you doing?’. You have to think how it’s going to look. If you’ve played most of the games, fair enough, but I’d only been at the club a couple of months. I arrived when most of the groundwork had been done.”
“He deserved it more,” he said of Kirkland, who is said to have ‘politely declined’ the offer.
Carson never had a chance once Pepe Reina arrived
Although Carson may have felt he had a shot at ousting Dudek from the Liverpool XI, he did not stand a chance once Pepe Reina was signed in the wake of Istanbul.
Kirkland left that summer, allowing Dudek and Carson to battle it out as the Spaniard’s number two.
Benitez still preferred Dudek, with the Pole playing six times to Carson’s four during the 2005/06 season. The Englishman even left on loan for Sheffield Wednesday in the January window.
Only 20 at the end of that campaign, Carson may have felt as though he still had a future at Anfield. But after two successive loan deals it became clear that he would never get past Reina.
Although he ended up technically winning four Premier Leagues with Man City, these were not his successes either, and Carson ultimately never proved that Benitez was wrong to overlook him two decades ago.
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