7 former Liverpool players we can’t believe are still playing in 2024
It’s almost impossible to keep tabs on all the players that once represented Liverpool, such is the number of players that have come and gone at Anfield over the years.
There are some obvious ex-Liverpool veterans still going in the Premier League, such as James Milner and Adam Lallana, but we’ve taken a look further afield to collate seven names that you might be surprised are still going.
Here are seven former Liverpool players who you probably didn’t realise were still playing professionally in 2024.
Pepe Reina
It feels like Reina’s schtick has been “still playing” for ages now. Ten years have passed since he left Liverpool, with bench-warming stints at Bayern Munich and AC Milan among more regular starts for Lazio, Napoli and Villarreal – alongside that weird half-season at Aston Villa that doesn’t feel real.
The former Spain international is now 42 and challenging Gianluigi Buffon when it comes to refusing to hang up the gloves. He’s just returned to Italy for another spell, standing between the sticks for Cesc Fabregas’ newly-promoted Como.
He’s played every minute of their 2024-25 campaign so far.
Andy Carroll
Eleven years have passed since Carroll left Merseyside following his inauspicious stint at Anfield. He kept on going in the English game for another decade after that, turning out with varying degrees of success at West Ham, back at Newcastle, Reading and West Brom.
Then, last summer, Carroll made the eyebrow-raising decision to sign for Ligue 2 club Amiens. The 35-year-old scored four goals last term as they finished eighth in the French second tier and is now onto the second season of his two-year deal.
Ragnar Klavan
It feels like every year we check the Estonian defender’s Transfermarkt page and are encouraged to find he’s still going – despite turning 39 in October.
Klavan, a cult hero of the early Klopp era, returned to his home country in 2021 and has since represented two clubs, Paide Linnameeskond and JK Tallinna Kalev.
The seven-time Estonian Footballer Of The Year even received his latest, and 130th, international cap earlier this year.
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Andre Wisdom
On the one hand, Wisdom is only 31 years of age, so in that sense it’s no great surprise that he’s still playing.
On the other hand, back in 2020 the defender was stabbed multiple times by robbers that stole his watch. He suffered on a long road to recovery and subsequently spent a couple of years without a club after being released by Derby County following their relegation to League One in 2021.
You’d be forgiven for assuming that Wisdom had quietly decided to call it a day, given what he’d been through.
Instead, he returned to the game by signing for non-league Warrington Town last year and has subsequently joined Derry City.
“The will was always there, but it felt like it wasn’t the way at times,” Wisdom said after signing for the League Of Ireland title chasers.
“Perseverance, mindset, keeping going. You’ve got to keep training. It’s led me here. I’m quite proud of myself for getting back into full-time football. I can now say again I have a job.”
Fair play.
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Steven Caulker
The centre-back striker only ever made three Premier League appearances for Liverpool during a somewhat baffling stint on loan from Queens Park Rangers back in 2016. But we’re counting him.
Caulker isn’t actually that old, but given how he’s dropped off the mainstream footballing radar you might’ve presumed he decided to call it quits.
On the contrary, Caulker is now a regular international for Sierra Leone and has recently signed up to represent a fifth different Turkish club since 2019, second-tier Ankara Keciorengucu.
Jay Spearing
We’re arguably stretching the definition of “still playing” here, given that Spearing has taken up that strange semi-retirement role of coaching and playing alongside Liverpool’s academy starlets.
Maybe he had a tough paper round, but Spearing already had the look of a haggard old veteran when he was in Liverpool’s academy the first time around. The 35-year-old is now into his third season back at his boyhood club, lending his considerable years of Football League experience to the youngsters.
Dani Pacheco
It feels like yesterday that the La Masia academy graduate was around the fringes of the first-team squad at Liverpool, talked up as potentially the next big thing.
Turns out he left Liverpool in 2013, which makes us feel ridiculously old. What followed was a fairly unremarkable journeyman career back in Spain, with Alcorcon, Real Betis, Alaves, Getafe and Malaga among the stops along the way.
But his career took an altogether more leftfield turn in 2021, with a move to Cypriot outfit Aris Limassol followed by a stint in Poland with Gornik Zabrze. This summer Pacheco dropped down to the second tier of the Polish league system, signing for lesser-known club Wisla Plock. Surprisingly enough, he’s only 33.