Didi Hamann was part of the Liverpool side which produced the mother of all comebacks against AC Milan to win the Champions League in 2005 in a game subsequently dubbed ‘the miracle of Istanbul’
Didi Hamann says he smoked a celebratory cigarette in the showers with Liverpool’s chairman after winning the Champions League in 2005.
The Reds did the unthinkable by coming back from 3-0 down to beat an AC Milan side packed to the brim with generationally-talented players in what was arguably the most dramatic Champions League final of all time. Hamann, 50, came on as a second half sub and helped Rafa Benitez’s men claw their way back into the contest, before eventually triumphing on penalties.
Speaking on That Peter Crouch Podcast, the former Germany international said he and his team-mates were so flabbergasted with their comeback that the atmosphere was quiet when they got back to the dressing room.
“You come in and it’s all a bit surreal,” Hamann said. “We left the dressing room two hours before dead and buried, and now the cup is in the middle of the floor. There were no wild celebrations. People just sat there in disbelief.
“I thought, now I’ll have a celebratory smoke, but I’d left my fags in the hotel. A minute later the chairman in, David Moores. He was the biggest [Liverpool] fan, he loved being with the boys. He walked in and before he could even say anything I grabbed and said, ‘Chairman, I need you in the shower for a second’.
Hamann came on at half time in the final against AC Milan when Liverpool were 3-0 down
“I told him to give me a fag and he said, ‘I can’t. What if the manager walks in?’ And I told him, you’re the chairman, just sack him. So reluctantly he gave me one and sparked up himself, and we just stood there. We never said a word to each other.”
Moores sadly passed away in 2022, and Hamann says sharing that moment in Istanbul with him was “the icing on the cake of the best evening in football terms [of my life].”
Hamann spent seven years at Liverpool, winning seven major honours with the club. He also played for Bayern Munich, Newcastle and Manchester City.
