InterviewFour games and a revoked passport: The story of Sebastian Leto's unusual LFC career

What would have been better: to have enjoyed the briefest taste of his dream or never to have experienced it all?

The Argentinian arrived at Liverpool in 2007 but was limited to just four competitive appearances in two years as a Red – through no fault of his own.

Bureaucratic issues – a revoked Italian passport and work-permit denials – meant Leto's Anfield career was over almost as soon as it began.

"This regret, I will keep it for all my life," Leto, now 39 years old and head coach of Greek Super League side Kifisia, tells Liverpoolfc.com.

"If I need to answer the question, of course I would live it again. Because this experience life gives you, many players or many people will never feel that feeling of being in this kind of club.

"From one side I'm happy, from the other side I am very, very sad."

It all began so promisingly for him on Merseyside.

When on the cusp of signing for River Plate from fellow Buenos Aires side Lanus, in came interest from Liverpool and the decision was an easy one.

Having agreed to the move eight months earlier, Leto joined ahead of the start to 2007-08.

"My first day going to Liverpool from Argentina to meet these kind of players – [Steven] Gerrard, [Javier] Mascherano, Xabi Alonso, [Alvaro] Arbeloa, we had Sami Hyypia, Fabio Aurelio – players that you can see on PlayStation or on the TV in the Premier League," Leto says. "Then you met with them, you enjoy the dressing room with them."

Rafael Benitez, who was a competitor of Leto's in Greece last season, was impressed enough by the left winger to give him a go right from the off.

The 20-year-old debuted from the start in a Champions League qualifier against Toulouse at Anfield. He then assisted Fernando Torres away at Reading.

His third appearance for the club came in Europe, again in the starting line-up for a home group-stage meeting with Marseille.

"To give me that opportunity, it means a lot, it means that the coach was seeing something in me," Leto reflects. "Unfortunately we lost the game, I didn't play so well in that game.

"But this is a game that I will remember because at such a young age I had that opportunity to play Champions League in Anfield and listen to You'll Never Walk Alone. Amazing, amazing.

"Twenty years ago, I still remember like it was yesterday."

One more outing – in a League Cup tie with Cardiff City – was to be had before Leto's Liverpool career was put on hold indefinitely.

The uncapped Leto was able to make the move due to being eligible for an Italian passport through a grandparent.

However, according to reports at the time, authorities in Italy launched an investigation into thousands of citizenship applications and, as part of it, Leto ended up losing his European passport.

Liverpool's response was to try to obtain a work permit, but those attempts were rebuffed by the Department of Work and Pensions.

It left Leto in limbo and unable to play competitively.

"After five years, all the situations were fixed and I took back the passport, everything was legal," he reveals, painfully. "Fortunately I fixed the problem later on, but unfortunately I lost my opportunity to continue my career in Liverpool."

In August 2008, Leto moved on loan to Olympiacos in the hope it would spruce up his CV and help strengthen the case for a work permit.

The ploy was unsuccessful, though, and Leto left permanently for Greece the following summer, crossing the divide in the 'derby of the eternal enemies' by moving to Panathinaikos.

On leaving Liverpool, Leto says: "To be honest, like I always say, 'Man, why? Why didn't I have this opportunity? Maybe it's better not to have this experience.'

"Because let's say that it didn't work because of the football experience or what happened, this you [can] carry on [with]. But I'm carrying on 20 years knowing [because of] that problem I didn't have that opportunity.

"But this helped me because I believed I could do it – not easily but I had the potential to be part of the Liverpool family."

Leto moved on to Greece, Italy and the Middle East in his footballing journey, and virtually everywhere has been recognised as the former Liverpool player.

He went into coaching after retiring as a player in 2019, first serving as an assistant of Iranian side Esteghlal and then at Al Gharafa in Qatar and Kifisia.

Leto took charge of the latter club following their relegation from the Greek top flight, and swiftly began turning it around.

Kifisia earned promotion back to the Super League in 2024-25 by winning the second tier, with Leto being named the division's Coach of the Year.

His team last season – which included former Liverpool youngster Yasser Larouci – achieved the club's highest-ever Super League finish of 10th.

He encountered Benitez's Panathinaikos on two occasions and his coaching is partly inspired by the experience of working with the Spaniard.

Leto says: "I don't know exactly but more or less 19, 20 years [later], we meet him and face him twice.

"He was a very important person in my European career and then to try to beat him or to play against him, that feeling was amazing.

"Unfortunately I couldn't beat him – he is Rafa! – but it was amazing to see him again and for sure to play against him."

With one dream cruelly ended, an ambition Leto now holds in this stage of his life is to return to Anfield with a team under his management.

"I am a dreamer person, I like to dream a lot, like everybody," he finishes.

"Especially in football, one day to another, it can give you many nice surprises and I would like one day first to try to [get] coaching experience in the Premier League because I believe it's one of the top leagues in the world. This will be a very important challenge for me.

"But yeah, for one of my teams to face Liverpool, in Anfield, listen to You'll Never Walk Alone, it will be a really, really amazing experience."