Former Liverpool defender Sotirios Kyrgiakos has spoken to Greek website Sport24.gr about the recently retired Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard.
Sport24, like most, are very respectful of Gerrard and they labelled Kyrgiakos as ‘Among the players who played alongside Stevie G’. The former Greek international and Gerrard were teammates at Anfield between 2009 and 2011.
Kyrgiakos, when asked about his former Anfield colleague, said: “He welcomed me very positively ever since the beginning. He told me ‘Welcome to England’ after my first game which was very heated. It was very pleasing. But the most important thing is he considers all the players equal which is a wonderful thing for a captain.”
Kyrgiakos was also asked about what made the Liverpool legend so special on the pitch and explained: ”Passion. He didn’t want to lose anything. He was always there to be win. He played his game with real, amazing passion. And off the field he’s a wonderful human being. A very funny person.
“When he entered the pitch in the 45th minute and scored a hat-trick against Napoli… I said ‘Wow’ – He’s a special player.”
“Whenever we lost he was quite angry. No one would go close to him. When we won, he’s happy, but didn’t make too much about it. He’s a perfectionist. He’s always looking to improve himself.
“He and Carra had their own personalities. I couldn’t say who was better or more vocal. They were just different. But, man, they know what Liverpool’s all about. It’s such a great advantage to have.”
Kyrgiakos joined Liverpool from AEK which was considered as a strange deal back in 2009. He made 33 appearances in the Premier League before he made the switch to Wolfsburg.
