Feature'Tears still come today' - My Liverpool Story... with Sami Hyypia

Liverpool was my favourite club when I was young.

My first Liverpool shirt was with Candy on the front, it had white stripes. I still have a picture from when I played for Liverpool and I'm holding that first shirt. In the early '80s Liverpool were quite successful so I think it came from that. I wasn't even 10, so you always start to follow the successful clubs maybe more than anything else. I didn't have any history that my parents were Liverpool fans.

At that time, games were only 3pm on a Saturday - they showed one game live in Finland every Saturday. I remember the Saturdays, because it was five o'clock in Finland when it kicked off. So, we went to the sauna before the game and then got ready for the game and were in front of the TV always at 5pm on a Saturday. That was a great tradition. It wasn't like nowadays where you have games every day; always Saturday 5pm in front of the TV watching the Premier League. I was sometimes lucky that they showed the Liverpool game.

Actually my dad's favourite team was... [coughs]... from Manchester. Maybe it was because then we had like little fights at home, you know, to support. But he has changed his favourite club! It's Liverpool now.

When I signed for Liverpool in 1999, that was like somehow a circle closed or a dream come true that I can sign a deal with my favourite club.

I first met Gerard Houllier when he came to see my game in Holland and afterwards I saw him.

That was probably the first moment that I realised, 'Hey, this might happen' because I meet the manager and he's telling me what his plans are with me. He only said that he's planning with me, that I would be another centre-back in his plans for years to come. And I was very happy if he thought that way. But I had no clue then that it would go how it went. I'm always very modest and a down-to-earth guy.

I came to Liverpool to do my best and it's great now afterwards that my best gave me the kind of career at Liverpool Football Club that I had. That day when I signed my deal, if somebody came to tell me, 'You'll spend the next 10 years here and you'll win this and this and this and you'll play this many games', I wouldn't have believed that. It was like living in a dream for 10 years.

We didn't win anything in my first season but I established myself as a Premier League player.

One of the biggest prizes I've won individually was the Player of the Month in the Premier League. It's not many times defenders get it and that happened in the first season, in November. I still have the award at home and that's special for me.

Also special for me was how the club was towards me, because three months after I came, I got the captain's armband in a game against West Ham. We were playing away and we went to the dressing room and the armband was on my place. Jamie Redknapp was the first captain and Robbie Fowler was the second, and they were both injured. So then I had the armband and I was all confused that this was possible, but very happy as well.

And also after three months, the club wanted to renew my contract. That showed me how the club was. I had signed a four-year contract and after three months the club wanted to offer me a new contract.

The second season was of course unique and special as we won the League Cup, FA Cup and UEFA Cup. It was so demanding and tiring during that season, but it was the kind of experience you would never really be able to live again.

I'm quite a calm person, but I have nerves and throughout my career I always had a bad stomach before games... that I had to go to the toilet like five or six times before the game! It was because my stomach wasn't right, but that was a good nervousness. I felt that when I had that nervousness then I can get more out of myself.

I also decided later on that if I lost the nervousness then I would stop playing. But I never lost it, I had it until the end and that wasn't the reason that I stopped playing.

When Rafa Benitez took over from Gerard in 2004, it felt strange at first.

Maybe many players would think that when the new manager comes, somehow they are not sure what's going to happen. Maybe that came into my head as well a little bit, but then on the other hand, if the manager doesn't like me then there's 100 managers who like me. So, I wasn't worried about that at all when he came.

It was the same mentality, that I get my head down, kept working hard in training, keeping myself ready for the games and play as good as I can.

I liked to work with him because in the football things I learned a lot from him. He was very specific with the tactical things and that was great for me football-wise as well. I had always in my head that I would like to coach one day and during that part of my life I learned a lot from him as well.

I was sad when Gerard Houllier had to go. But on the other hand, we got a different kind of manager and I think the rest is history because in the first season of Rafa, we won the Istanbul final so everyone probably was happy after the first season.

20 years on, I still can't make any more sense of what happened in that Champions League final.

You only have to look at the AC Milan side. Italian teams at that time, if they were leading 1-0 they were able to control the game and then win 1-0, they wouldn't let you score. Maybe it was our luck that it was 3-0, that they thought as well in the half-time that it was finished already, that our back is broken already and we are not able to come back. Maybe that was our blessing somehow.

I still don't understand how we won it, how we came back. People always say that you have to believe in something for it to happen, but that night showed me that even if you don't believe, if you put your maximum effort for something then it can happen.

I think every footballer's dream is at least once to lift the Champions League trophy and we got to do it in incredible circumstances in Istanbul, so I'm grateful for that and grateful to all my teammates that we were able to make it to the final, because we had a few big obstacles to go through before the final already.

I think that makes it even more special. The group stage, the last game we had to win by two goals against Olympicaos and Rivaldo scored the first goal of the game. In the second half, we had to score three goals. And also the Chelsea semi-final - I think that was the best atmosphere I felt as a player at Anfield, it was so loud the whole way through the game.

That made winning the final even more special. And maybe when the final was like that, people don't remember the semi-final and the last game of the group stage. There won't be a Champions League final like that ever again. There wasn't, and there won't be.

When I left the club in 2009, I knew I was leaving behind a lot of friends and a lot of good people.

But life goes on, and I'm grateful to still be a part of the LFC family. I wouldn't change this for anything.

My last game, I'm still not that happy that I got only like six minutes or something! But that was the manager's decision and I always accepted the manager's decision. The crowd was great, from the beginning of the game they were shouting my name and the mosaic was great before the game. They wanted me to get on the pitch.

It's still emotional when I think of that day and when I see some scenes from that day. Still, the tears are coming to my eyes.

I was close to coming back to Liverpool under Roy Hodgson a year later.

Roy said he would like to get me back, it was like a double role, because we had worked together with the Finnish national team. We knew each other from that and I had a good relationship with him. I said to Roy that I was at Bayer Leverkusen now and I needed to speak to them about it.

I spoke with the directors of Leverkusen, told them Roy called me and asked if I would go back to Liverpool, and what was their view about that? I knew that they respected me as a person and I knew that they would be totally honest with their answer. Somehow I thought that they would think about me as well a little bit in this situation.

But they said, 'Look, we are very happy that you are here and we are not willing to let you go.' So, that was it for me. I'm not a person who starts a fight, I accept my fate or accept decisions made about me. I respected their opinion.

I told Roy and explained that Leverkusen wanted me to stay, and that was it, that was the end of the discussion. He respected my opinion and my decision.

Hyypia was speaking to Liverpoolfc.com's Chris Shaw.

Read more from the 'My Liverpool Story' series...

• Lucas Leiva
• Gary McAllister
• Emile Heskey
• Ragnar Klavan