The Liver Bird  

In the last friendly of the season for Liverpool, Sami Hyypia brought his Bayer Leverkusen side to Anfield on Sunday. It was brilliant to see Sami back at the club he spent most of his career at, I must admit, I've missed that smile of his.

Liverpool scored 3 goals in the game whilst Leverkusen could only find one return. Raheem Sterling scored the first, this young man is just oozing confidence. Taking on two defenders he then curled his strike into the back of the net, it was a cracking goal.

Lucas scored Liverpool's second with an easy tap in after a terrible clearance from the Leverkusen defender.  It's nice to see Lucas back and even grabbing a goal! Haha. The last goal was scored by the big man Andy Carroll, at one stage it seemed like he may be off but here's hoping Brendan has had a change of heart because Carroll offers "the trick up the sleeve" he's a contrast to what is expected from a Rodgers side and that may well aid us in some stages through…

Sami Hyypia was at Liverpool Football Club for a fantastic 10 years. As Houllier's signing in 1999, I grew up with the Finnish defender commanding the Liverpool back four. From a relatively unknown element brought into the Liverpool side he flourished into a fan favourite and a legend in his own right.


The Basics

Full Name: Sami Hyypia
Nickname: "Big Sami"
Date Of Birth: 7th October 1973
Born in: Porvoo, Finland
Height: 6'5"
Position: Defender

Background

Hyypia was born into a footballing family as his Mother was an amateur goalkeeper and his Father played for Finnish side Pallo Peikot. His early sporting days saw him take up Ice Hockey whilst in school which is a popular choice in the Scandinvian countries but the footballing influence eventually filtered its way through to Sami.

After retiring from football Hyypia set up a charitable fund to help encourage and support young athletes from Finland. He ran the Helsinki marathon in August 2011 in 3hours and 56minute…