“They called me the day after the final.” Ludovic Giuly reveals how close he came to joining Liverpool in 2006, why Lionel Messi’s rise forced his Barcelona exit, and the Rafa Benítez contract offer that almost changed everything.
The morning after the 2006 Champions League final in Paris should have been a time of pure, unadulterated celebration for Ludovic Giuly. He had just played his part in a historic 2-1 victory over Arsenal, securing Barcelona’s second European Cup.
Yet, amid the euphoria at the Stade de France, a phone call from Merseyside was about to present the French winger with a career-defining crossroads. Liverpool wanted him, and they wanted him immediately.
The call from Merseyside
Rafael Benítez’s Liverpool were fresh off their own FA Cup triumph and looking for the final pieces of the puzzle to mount a sustained Premier League title challenge. Natural width and elite European experience were high on Benítez’s wishlist, and Giuly fit the bill perfectly.
Speaking recently to Kampo via YouTube, Giuly revealed just how aggressively the Reds pursued him the moment the standard post-match confetti had settled.
“Because I know, at that point, I have Liverpool who are chasing me, they call me the day after the (Champions League) final, they tell me, ‘I want you.’ I had two years left in Barcelona. How am I supposed to make decisions?”
“I have less emotional attachment to Liverpool than to Barcelona.”
Despite the pull of Camp Nou, Liverpool offered the security of a long-term project and a guaranteed central role in the Premier League.
“It’s not the same career path, maybe my status changes and I say: no, I don’t want to stay at Barcelona, I want to go to Liverpool. Because I have a new challenge. They offered me three years.”
The inevitable rise of Messi
While a move to Anfield offered a fresh challenge, the primary catalyst for Giuly questioning his future in Catalonia wasn’t money or a lack of ambition from Barça. It was the meteoric, unstoppable ascent of a teenage prodigy named Lionel Messi.
Giuly and Messi shared the pitch 26 times for the Blaugrana, but the writing was on the wall. The Frenchman knew that keeping the generational talent on the bench was an impossibility, regardless of his own status.
“But imagine Messi coming through. After that, I’m obliged to leave. I can’t stay. How do I do it?” Giuly admitted.
“He played in the 2006 World Cup with Argentina. You see, I’m telling you, it’s not the same because I don’t have the same status. Even if Leo comes to me and says ‘I’ll work things out with the club.’ I’m like, ‘How do we do this? Do we play every other game, or do you want me to leave and go to another club?”
With the 2008 European Championships on the horizon, Giuly knew his minutes at Barcelona were about to plummet, threatening his international ambitions.
“I’d won everything, I’m done. The Euros are coming. I know it’s going to be difficult for me. ‘Good luck.’ And that’s it. Then I go and do something at Liverpool, and it’s not the same thing.”
Ultimately, Giuly chose to stay put for one more season to fight for his place before moving to AS Roma in 2007. Subsequent stints at Paris Saint-Germain and Monaco followed before he retired, finishing a stellar club career with 170 goals and 54 assists in 754 appearances.
ReadLiverpoolFC Verdict
It is fascinating to look back at this as one of the great ‘what ifs’ of the Rafa Benítez era. Giuly was a thoroughly modern winger for his time intelligent, direct, and possessing a relentless work ethic that would have translated seamlessly into Benítez’s tactical system.
In the summer of 2006, Liverpool ended up signing Jermaine Pennant and Mark González to plug the gaps out wide. While Pennant had his moments notably performing brilliantly in the 2007 Champions League final rematch against AC Milan neither possessed the elite, trophy-winning pedigree of Giuly.
The Frenchman’s hesitation came down to an emotional attachment to Barcelona and the daunting prospect of uprooting his life for England.
Had Liverpool managed to get that deal over the line the day after Paris, Giuly’s guile and experience could well have provided the extra edge Liverpool lacked in their domestic campaigns that followed. It remains a tantalizing glimpse into a transfer window that almost was.
