He’d long been billed as the next Steven Gerrard, but not even Jordan Rossiter would have dreamed of scoring a 30 yarder 10 minutes into his Liverpool senior debut.
Alright, it wasn’t quite in the blockbusting style of many of Gerrard’s trademark strikes, but the goal is there in the club’s history books, coming in a League Cup tie at home to Middlesbrough in September 2014.
After Raheem Sterling had chased a through ball, Boro goalkeeper Jamal Blackman raced out to smother, and ended up blocking a Rickie Lambert follow up as well.
The ball then dropped to the 17-year-old Rossiter, and where you’d have expected him to have lifted his shot over Blackman and the static visiting defenders - something he might actually have been trying to do - instead he fired a low, skidding effort that went through everyone and found the bottom left corner of the Anfield Road End net.
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Liverpool Echo)The Scouser’s smile and wide eyes lit up Anfield, with his joyous teammates barely able to contain their glee as they chased after him.
It was a wonderful moment on what became a crazy night, with the Reds ultimately winning 14-13 in a mammoth penalty shootout after a 2-2 draw, and for Rossiter it was an announcement that he had finally arrived on the first-team scene.
Liverpool’s academy player of the year a season prior, Rossiter had been on the bench for a couple of first-team games and was a name known and hotly-tipped locally, with whispers of Gerrard usually following any mention of him, partly due to a tweet from Robbie Fowler comparing the two back in January 2013 when Rossiter was just 15.
It might well have been a prediction which came to fruition were it not for a string of bad luck.
That Middlesbrough game would prove to be his only appearance of that 2014-15 season, as after a handful of unused substitute appearances he suffered an ankle injury in an FA Youth Cup game in early 2015.
It was to be the first significant setback of his career, but not his last.
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Getty Images)Brendan Rodgers clearly valued him, and after involving him heavily in his preparations for the following season he gave him his Premier League debut in a draw at Arsenal, before starting him in a Europa League trip to Bordeaux.
Things were looking up for the teenager, although not his manager who would soon be sacked. Then just days into Jurgen Klopp’s arrival came a new setback for the midfielder.
Rossiter had been called into the England under-19s squad after catching the eye on Merseyside, and he played in three games in six days for Aidy Boothroyd’s side despite nursing a hamstring injury.
In possibly the first of what would become many examples at Liverpool, Klopp was deeply unhappy about the treatment of his player, and criticised Boothroyd and the FA’s handling of him.
"Rossiter is a special story. I have never heard about a player of 18 years having to play three games in five [sic] days,” he told a press conference before a Europa League game against Rubin Kazan, his first at Anfield as Reds manager.
"That was the problem and that's why he got injured. Now he is injured and we have to wait for him. I don't think he will be ready to play until after the next international break.
"I don't know who I have to talk to about this. But I will find a way to talk with somebody about this. Three games in five days is not OK. We need him at this moment. He's a young player and a big talent. It would be good for him if he was now with us, but he can't be. That's the situation.
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Liverpool Echo)"On my first day I didn't want to have a call with someone with the FA but for sure this is not OK.
"These young players are our future. If we handle them like horses, we will get horses."
With Rossiter stuck in the stalls, he was denied the chance to impress his new manager at a time when Klopp was determined to get to know the club’s best young talents, and with the hamstring injury still bothering him, plus the fierce competition for places, he was restricted to just 14 minutes under the German in a Europa League game against Sion in Switzerland.
Out of contract at the end of that campaign, Rossiter took the opportunity to move on and joined Rangers on a free transfer, with the Reds receiving a small compensation fee for the now 18-year-old.
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Getty Images)Greater opportunity for first-team football was one of the main factors behind Rossiter’s decision, as well as the security of a four-year contract, and after making the move north he was instantly thrust into manager Mark Warburton’s team, only for injury to strike again.
Thigh and back problems dogged his first two seasons at Ibrox, with attempted comebacks usually cut short by calf or hamstring issues that forced the club to send him to a specialist, and which caused immense frustration among fans who had been excited by the ‘next Gerrard’ billing.
By the summer of 2018 they would have the real thing of course, with Gerrard taking on his first senior managerial role at Rangers and tipped to get the best out of his young protege who had broken into the Liverpool squad in the club icon’s last season as a player there.
Gerrard would only get five games out of Rossiter though before he was loaned to Bury to pick up match fitness, before a similar switch to Fleetwood Town the following season.
He was impressing in League One and Two, helping Bury to the latter title, and he was clearly showing that he possessed quality if he could only stay fit.
At Fleetwood it was another Scouser, Joey Baron, who liked what he saw from Rossiter, signing him on a permanent deal in the summer of 2020 after the loan ended and his Rangers contract ran out.
After two years there he’s now back with Barton at Bristol Rovers, joining the League One club this summer and nailing down a place in their midfield while thankfully staying largely injury free.
Now 25, Rossiter might never have quite lived up to that new Gerrard reputation but he’ll just be happy to be playing regularly as he eyes a route back towards the top, and gracing grounds like Anfield again.