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Ex-Liverpool youngster was left ‘starstruck’ by two former Reds after seeing them up close

Originally posted on Empire of the Kop | By Liam Togher | Last updated 10/17/24

A young footballer who was previously in Liverpool’s academy has said that he was ‘starstruck’ by two particular first-team players after a training session with them.

Alfie Devine, who this season is on loan at Belgian club Westerlo from Tottenham, was with the Reds until he was released as an 11-year-old and went on to join Wigan before the north London club snapped him up.

Devine ‘starstruck’ by ex-Liverpool duo

The 20-year-old gave an interview to Het Nieuwsblad when he was asked about his time with Liverpool, and he recalled one day when an illustrious were tasked with training his age group.

Devine said: “One day the stars of the first team came to visit the various youth teams. They were each assigned to a certain age group and trained a bit. I can still see Pepe Reina and Luis Suarez running like that, and yes, I was a bit starstruck.”

Reina and Suarez were iconic figures at Liverpool

We can only imagine what it must’ve been like for a group of kids at Liverpool’s academy to have had Reina and Suarez taking them for training.

The Spanish goalkeeper spent eight seasons at Anfield, reaching 50 league clean sheets quicker than anyone else in his position in the club’s history when he achieved the landmark in just his 92nd top-flight game. He recorded 20 shutouts in the 2008/09 Premier League when we were narrowly eclipsed by Manchester United in the title race.

As for Suarez, even his fantastic return of 82 goals in 133 games for the Reds doesn’t tell the whole story. Many of those were spellbinding finishes and he was indisputably the best player in the country when we went all the way with Manchester City for domestic supremacy in 2013/14.

The highly-rated Devine will no doubt be striving to emulate the careers that the ex-Liverpool duo had, and his first-team involvement at Tottenham means that he’s already had invaluable exposure to a ruthless environment at a prominent Premier League club.

Maybe in a few years’ time, a current player in the Reds’ academy will speak in equally reverential tones about seeing the exploits of Alisson Becker, Mo Salah and others up close…

This article first appeared on Empire of the Kop and was syndicated with permission.

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