MARK WRIGHT

1991-1992

Games as Captain: 55

Signed from Derby County FC in the summer of 1991, it was in December of that year when Mark Wright was appointed as the new captain of Liverpool FC by manager Graeme Souness in the aftermath of a shock 1-0 League Cup defeat at Third Division Peterborough United FC.

Five months later, Wright was lifting the FA Cup at Wembley, following a 2-0 victory against Sunderland AFC, and he also wore the armband in the Reds’ maiden Premier League match at Nottingham Forest FC in August 1992.

However, following a 5-1 defeat at Coventry City FC in December 1992, Wright lost his place in the team to Danish defender Torben Piechnik with both Steve Nicol and John Barnes sharing captaincy duties until the end of the season when a new full-time skipper was named.

IAN RUSH

1993-1996

Games as Captain: 114

Liverpool FC’s all-time leading goalscorer first captained the Redmen in May 1987 in his final Anfield appearance before moving to Juventus FC, but after returning to Merseyside in 1988 it was another half-decade before Ian Rush got the job on a permanent basis.

The Welsh international striker was 31 at the time and manager Souness felt he could lead the Reds from the front, an opinion shared by Roy Evans when he took over as Liverpool FC boss in January 1994.

Rush formed a strike partnership with a young Robbie Fowler - nicknamed the RAF (Rush and Fowler) - and captained LFC to success in the 1995 League Cup final against Bolton Wanderers FC at Wembley before moving on in 1996 with a still-unbeaten 346 Liverpool FC goals to his name.

JOHN BARNES

1996-1997

Games as Captain: 111

Having first skippered Liverpool FC in January 1993 and served as vice-captain to Ian Rush for a couple of years, John Barnes was handed the job permanently in 1996 by manager Roy Evans.

It was the England international’s 10th season at Anfield and by now Barnes was established as a central midfielder having arrived on Merseyside as a flying winger who, between 1987 and 1991, was on the the most exciting, talented, skilful players in world football.

For a while it looked like he could be Liverpool FC’s first Premier League winning captain as the Reds challenged for the title in 1996/97, but they won just two of their final seven matches to finish fourth and in August 1997 Barnes left on a free transfer. He scored 108 goals and contributed 101 assists in 407 appearances for LFC.

PAUL INCE

1997-1999

Games as Captain: 81

The former Manchester United FC midfielder was something of a controversial signing when he was bought from Internazionale in the summer of 1997 after previously spending six seasons at Old Trafford, but Reds’ manager Roy Evans felt he needed a new leader in the centre of the park.

Ince was immediately appointed as captain and added steel and determination to the side, but Liverpool FC were notoriously inconsistent and failed to challenge for silverware, resulting in Gérard Houllier being brought in as joint-manager in the summer of 1998.

When Houllier took sole charge three months into the 1998/99 season Ince remained as captain and celebrated scoring a late equaliser against Manchester United FC like he was a lifelong Kopite but Houllier concluded that he wasn’t part of his rebuild after another trophyless season and sold him to Middlesbrough FC, bringing in Didi Hamann as his replacement.

JAMIE REDKNAPP

1999-2002

Games as Captain: 25

Sir Kenny Dalglish signed Jamie Redknapp as a teenager back in 1991 and eight years later he was an established central midfielder for club and country with over 275 LFC appearances under his belt.

Redknapp seemed the perfect choice to be Gérard Houllier’s new skipper when he got the job in 1999, but then suffered a succession of injuries that limited him to just 25 games wearing the armband.

He missed Liverpool FC’s entire 2000/01 treble-winning campaign with vice-captains Robbie Fowler and Sami Hyypiä stepping in, but when the Reds won the FA Cup final against Arsenal FC in Cardiff they invited Redknapp onto the pitch to lift the trophy alongside them. After appearing eight times in 2001/02, he joined Tottenham Hotspur FC.

SAMI HYYPIÄ

2002-2003

Games as Captain: 204

Finnish international centre-back Sami Hyypiä was a natural choice to replace Jamie Redknapp as skipper in 2002 given he had already captained the Redmen multiple times and lifted the UEFA Cup, Community Shield and UEFA Super Cup in 2001.

The giant Finn was only the second non-British player to be appointed as Liverpool FC club captain - following the Republic of Ireland’s Ronnie Whelan - and he went on to lift another trophy as Gérard Houllier’s men returned to Cardiff to beat Manchester United FC in the 2003 League Cup final.

Hyypiä was ultra-consistent, but when his form finally dipped in the early months of 2003/04 the Reds’ boss decided it was time for Steven Gerrard to take over the armband, a decision Sami took with huge grace. “I am very happy that it happened,” he later said. “I knew it meant a lot to Stevie and he grew up as a man and a player so much after that. I wanted to help Stevie and if he had a problem, I was always there.”

STEVEN GERRARD

2003-2015

Games as Captain: 472

“I thought I was still a bit young,” admitted Steven Gerrard after being appointed as Reds’ skipper at the age of 23, “but to be the captain of Liverpool Football Club is a very privileged position.”

Becoming Liverpool FC captain fulfilled a lifelong ambition for the boyhood Red, who by the age of 23 was already maturing into one of the best midfielders in the game.

In 2005, Gerrard became LFC’s fourth European Cup winning captain - after Emlyn Hughes, Phil Thompson and Graeme Souness - when the Reds won the UEFA Champions League in Istanbul and a year later he scored twice as Liverpool FC won the FA Cup final against West Ham United FG. A League Cup win followed in 2012 and Gerrard left Anfield in 2015 after skippering the Redmen a club record 472 times.

JORDAN HENDERSON

2015-2023

Games as Captain: 268

Following Steven Gerrard as Liverpool FC captain seemed like an impossible job, but Jordan Henderson proved it was possible by becoming the most successful Reds’ skipper since Emlyn Hughes.

After Jürgen Klopp’s men lost the League Cup final and UEFA Europa League final (2016), the UEFA Champions League final (2018) and missed out on winning the Premier League (2019) despite accumulating an astonishing 97 points, it felt like Henderson wasn’t destined for success. But when he became LFC’s fifth European Cup winning captain in 2019 the floodgates opened with the UEFA Super Cup and a maiden FIFA Club World Cup also won that year before he became the Reds’ first Premier League winning skipper in 2020.

He also did the ‘Hendo shuffle’ when lifting the League Cup, FA Cup and FA Community Shield in 2022 and this summer left LFC for Gerrard’s Al-Ettifaq FC as the only LFC captain to have lifted seven different trophies.

Now it’s over to Virgil van Dijk - Liverpool FC’s first Dutch captain - to try to continue the success story…