Incredibly, Liverpool was home to only nine World Cup winners prior to the signing of Alexis Mac Allister, who becomes only the third player to arrive after lifting the Jules Rimet trophy.
Mac Allister is the Reds’ first signing of the summer and arrives just six months after helping Argentina lift the World Cup in Qatar.
It has been a standout year for the 24-year-old for both club and country, and his move to Anfield comes following four seasons and 112 appearances for Brighton.
He bolsters Liverpool’s midfield department but also sees the list of World Cup winners in club history rise to 10, although he is only the third player signed after the fact.
Karl-Heinz Riedle was the first, lifting the Jules Rimet trophy with West Germany in 1990 before signing for Liverpool in 1997 – he went on to make 76 appearances over three seasons.
The next, and final World Cup winner signed up until now, was Bernard Diomede, who won with France in 1998 before becoming a Red in 2000.
While part of an exclusive club that could call themselves a world champion, Diomede made just three starts in the treble 2000/01 season and five appearances in total for the club.
But he may be best remembered for his overhead kick against Sunderland that was wrongly judged not to have crossed the line. It could have all been so different…
The third time is a charm with Mac Allister who, unlike Riedle and Diomede, was a key cog in Argentina’s World Cup-winning campaign, playing 555 minutes of a possible 690.
There have been five Reds to win the World Cup while at the club, Roger Hunt (1966), Ian Callaghan (1966), Gerry Byrne (1966), Fernando Torres (2010) and Pepe Reina (2010).
And two had left Anfield before claiming the greatest international honour, with Alvaro Arbeloa and Xabi Alonso both members of Spain’s triumph in 2010 after leaving Liverpool in 2009.
So, 23 years after last signing a World Cup winner, Mac Allister now adds to Liverpool’s World Cup hall of fame.
“The dream was to win the World Cup and I have done it. I could retire now. But I still enjoy playing football,” he told Sky Sports in February.
Don’t be hanging up those boots any time soon, Alexis. There’s plenty more success to come, now in the red of Liverpool!
