Steven Gerrard will be back in a Liverpool shirt alongside Fernando Torres as part of the LFC Legends team taking on Ajax Legends at Anfield on March 23.
The two iconic players, who shared an incredible on-pitch relationship during their time at the club, will both play in the annual LFC Foundation charity match. It will be the first time Torres, who was confirmed as part of the lineup last month, has returned to Anfield since he retired from professional football in 2019.
And Gerrard has become the latest player named in the lineup as the duo aims to rekindle their chemistry to entertain Reds fans. They will be managed by Sven-Goran Eriksson, with the help of Liverpool legends Ian Rush, John Aldridge and John Barnes.
The chance to see Gerrard and Torres play together again will be particularly exciting. And it’s a chance for them to rekindle the best years of their career.
The two were integral to Liverpool before Torres decided to leave for Chelsea in a controversial Deadline Day transfer in 2011. It was a move with Gerrard previously admitted “broke his heart” after he tried his best to convince him to stay.
Gerrard told the Robbie Fowler podcast in 2021:”‘I didn’t play with Torres long enough because he went to Chelsea and broke my heart. I was really, really gutted (when Torres left). We’re working so hard at this point to try and get as close as we can to close the gap and challenge.
“At Liverpool at the time it always felt like we were taking huge strides and getting close and progressing really well, and then at a really key time and a key moment for the team and the group, a big player gets taken away and it takes time to recover from that.
“My relationship with Torres, I was getting a lot of goals at that time. I was at my peak and felt fantastic.’
“I understand everyone’s situation is different. People have dreams and different paths and they’re not all local lads who love the club. I appreciate and respect all that, but at the same time it still hurts when someone leaves a club.
“I’ve told Fernando that. I tried to get him to stay. I told his agent the same. They were both at Melwood but they made a decision and that decision was out of my hands. It hurt a lot.”
Torres played in an All-Star game back in 2015, four years after leaving Liverpool, and previously recalled it was an important day in repairing his relationship with Liverpool fans. “It was a really important day for me,” he said in 2019. “I felt like at the end [of that game] we were in a good way.
“One of the regrets I have is the way I left the club. With time, I think I could explain the reasons. I’m really happy that every time I go anywhere in the world, I see Liverpool fans and they come to me and thank me for my time here. It should be the opposite way.
