After a breakout season in 2013-14 when Liverpool made a push for the title, Jon Flanagan was destined to repeat his success by nailing down his spot in the first team. However, his knee had other ideas. Flanagan has spent a lot of time off the pitch in the past year.
Born on 1 January 1993, Flanagan instantly fell in love with Liverpool Football Club due to his proximity to Anfield. This was around the time Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher were handed Liverpool debuts. In an interview last year, Flanagan said, “I lived two hundred yards away in Utting Avenue. When a goal went in, you could hear the roar of the crowd from the back garden.”
Although his father failed as a Liverpool player, he has shared the lessons he has learned from his faults at the club with his son Jon to ensure he reaches his full potential:
“I remember Phil Thompson doing a speech about my dad at the academy saying his attitude was wrong and just telling us where not to go wrong. My dad was good at helping me out; he knows he messed up and doesn’t want me to make the same mistakes. He went off the rails – he’s told me many stories about it. Football-wise, his attitude wasn’t the best. He’s doing OK now, he’s got a building and maintenance company, a family business.”
Flanagan lives in a two-storey redbrick house not too far from the Melwood training ground. He owns several cars, including a 2015 BMW X5, which he purchased in March 2015 from Innovation Cars Ltd in Liverpool. He prefers spaghetti bolognese if he is cooking, but he will explore other options if he is not. In fact, in December 2013, Liverpool defeated Spurs 5-0 in a game where Flanagan scored his first goal for the club. He rewarded himself with a Domino’s pizza:
“I got back home from London just in time for Match of the Day 2 and I had a Domino’s. It was nice to watch the goal again. I recorded it too. I’m still buzzing. To score was a dream come true.”
He has been playing FIFA & other games on PlayStation systems since he was a kid. He also enjoys going to the cinema to enjoy films, including ‘The Equalizer’ and ‘One Night in Istanbul’ most recently. TV series he has watched include ‘Ringside’, ‘Sons of Anarchy’, and ‘Orange is the New Black’ to name a few.
Hopefully Jon Flanagan will be spending more time on the pitch than off it in the future. He is nearing full recovery from a knee injury which has been bothering him for some time now.
