Liverpool's Top 11: One-Hit-Wonders from Anfield

Playing in the Premier League once – a dream come true for many English footballers. Some players only ever played one single match in the English top flight. The English record champions FC Liverpool even have a full top 11 of such one-hit wonders.

Liverpool FC will kick off the new season on Sunday in the prestigious Community Shield against cup winners Crystal Palace. Read more about this match starting Monday in our first “Match of the Week” of the new football season. 

Record signing Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen could win his first title with Liverpool in his competitive debut against “The Eagles”.

Winning a title with Liverpool was likely also the dream of the eleven LFC players I would like to introduce to you in this edition of Premier League Offside.
What they all have in common: they only ever played one Premier League match for Liverpool. 

Debut at Liverpool: “You’re going to play today” 

The English Premier League rights holder Sky Sports UK produced a fascinating documentary (“One and Only”) about players who played only once in the Premier League. 

David Raven also shares his story in it. 

“I followed my dad, who took me to Anfield. Liverpool was always the club that fascinated me. I couldn’t say no to Liverpool, the academy was brand new and I was a passionate fan,” said David Raven, who had his big moment with Liverpool on January 22, 2005, at Southampton.

“We were walking before the game and Stephen Warnock said to me: You're going to play today. There’s no one else who can play,” recalled Raven, who replaced injured LFC defender Sami Hyypiä. 

It was his third competitive appearance for Liverpool – and the only one in the Premier League. 

One game for Liverpool: No place for Dudek’s backup

Goalkeeper Patrice Luzi had a similar issue around the same time: penalty-saving legend Jerzy Dudek was an insurmountable competitor. The Polish keeper became one of the great goalkeeping icons for the Reds. Luzi was left with a spot on the bench and just one appearance as Dudek’s replacement in January 2004 at Chelsea (0:1). 

Luzi wasn’t even in the squad for the legendary Champions League final in Istanbul in 2005, where Dudek became a penalty shootout hero.

Rafa Camacho made his one and only Premier League appearance replacing a player with a similar legendary status – Mohamed Salah. That was in January 2019 against Crystal Palace. Before that, the Portuguese winger had only played in a full 90-minute FA Cup match against Wolverhampton Wanderers under Jürgen Klopp. He transferred to Sporting Lisbon at the end of that season. 

Another player who made his sole league appearance under Klopp was Sergi Canos. He played nine minutes against Norwich City in Klopp’s first season (2015/16). 

Pedro Chirivella was seen as a promising talent under Klopp, but only ever played once – a 1:3 defeat at Swansea City in May 2016. After loan spells with Go Ahead Eagles Deventer and Willem II Tilburg, FC Nantes signed the Spanish midfielder, who went on to make 151 league appearances in Ligue 1 – more than anywhere else in his career. 

Conor Coady, born in 1993 on Merseyside and trained at Liverpool, only played once for the LFC first team – as a substitute for Brazilian legend Philippe Coutinho at Fulham in May 2013. 

Coady later became a true club icon at Wolverhampton Wanderers, where he made 273 league appearances from 2015 onwards. 

A unique case in Liverpool’s one-hit wonder XI is Stephen Darby. He played more often in the Champions League (twice) than in the Premier League. His only league appearance came in 2010 during a 2:0 win against Tottenham when he replaced Swiss player Philipp Degen. 

Tragically, Darby had to retire from professional football at the age of 29 due to a serious illness.

Daniele Padelli joined Liverpool in 2007 at age 21, but the Italian goalkeeper had to compete with both Pepe Reina and Jerzy Dudek. In his only Premier League appearance, he conceded two goals in a 2:2 draw against Charlton Athletic – not enough to earn further chances. 

Jon Newby was the first of the one-hit wonders to debut after the turn of the millennium – a goalless 0:0 draw against Middlesbrough when he replaced Vladimir Smicer.

That was in January 2000. Later, he worked as a youth coach and scout for Liverpool.

There were no goals either in Jordan Rossiter’s only Premier League appearance – a 0:0 draw against Arsenal in 2015. It was one of the last matches under Liverpool coach Brendan Rodgers (now with Celtic Glasgow), who was replaced by Jürgen Klopp in October. Klopp used Rossiter a few more times in the Europa League, but never again in the Premier League. 

Rossiter transferred at the end of the season to Glasgow Rangers, where he only played ten league games.

Seven Minutes at Wimbledon

The first one-hit wonder at Liverpool after the Premier League was introduced in 1992 was Istvan Kozma. The Hungarian played six league matches in total for the six-time Champions League winner, but only one of them was in the Premier League. That one lasted just seven minutes in a 2:3 defeat at Wimbledon in September 1992 – barely five weeks after the Premier League had launched…

“I’ve seen enough of him,” LFC coach and club legend Graeme Souness is said to have remarked…