Liverpool Legends In The Making: Pepe Reina

When most people speak about the current Liverpool squad you will hear them breathlessly mention the names of local legends, Steven Gerrard or Jamie Carragher.

Many will highlight the world class goal scoring ability of Liverpool's most expensive player, Fernando Torres.

Some will talk about the commendable work rate of Dirk Kuyt and Javier Mascherano or the professionalism of Liverpool veteran, Sami Hyypia.

Very few will praise someone who has grown to be considered one of the best goal keepers in the world and become one of the hardest shot stoppers to beat in the English Premier League. 

Jose Reina

Jose "Pepe" Reina is the Spanish born, 26 year old who has followed in the footsteps of his famous goalkeeping father and former Atletico Madrid legend, Miguel Reina Santos.

Miguel Reina spent seven years with Spanish giants, Barcelona and was unfortunately involved during an unsuccessful period in their history—with the league dominated by fierce rivals, Real Madrid.

The father of the Liverpool goal keeper then moved to Atletico Madrid where he spent another seven years—making a European Cup final appearance in 1974 against a Bayern Munich team consisting of players such as Franz Beckenbauer and Gerd Müller.

Barcelona

Miguel’s son, Pepe, continued the goalkeeping tradition and became a product of the Barcelona youth academy where he spent a total of seven years playing for the club—also helping Spain to under-16 European Championship glory.

He quickly moved through the Barcelona youth ranks and on to the reserve squad before becoming a regular for the first team.

He made 49 appearances over two seasons as Barcelona number one, as well as two games in the UEFA Cup semi-final defeat of 2001—losing to eventual winners, Liverpool.

Villarreal

The Madrid born keeper then moved to Villarreal in 2002 where he played 147 games across three seasons for the club. Reina enjoyed even more European football with the UEFA Cup semi-final defeat at the hands of 2004 winners, Valencia—managed by current Liverpool manager, Rafa Benitez.

Reina was also part of the 2004 Intertoto Cup winning team that completed a quarter-final run in the UEFA Cup the next season and stopped seven of nine penalties against him during the 2004-05 La Liga campaign—helping secure Champions League football for the club before he moved to Liverpool in 2005.

Liverpool

When Rafael Benitez signed the 23 year old in the summer of 2005, the newly appointed Liverpool manager claimed he was bringing the “best keeper in Spain” to the Merseyside club.

Reina went straight in as first choice goal keeper and relegated former number one, Jerzy Dudek to the bench—despite Dudek’s contribution during Liverpool’s Champions League trophy win just two months previous.

The new Liverpool goal keeper also went on to make his international first team debut with a friendly appearance in Spain’s 2-0 victory over Uruguay in August 2005.

During his 184 games for the reds to date, Reina has managed to break many long standing club records held by some very highly rated ex-Liverpool players.

By December of his first season, Reina had achieved six consecutive clean sheets—breaking the previous record of five held by David James since 1997—eventually setting the new record at eight consecutive shut-outs in a Premier League season.

Reina also broke the club record for consecutive clean sheets in all competitions inside four months of his first season—holding the new record of 11 straight clean sheets.

At the end of the 2006-07 campaign, Reina played his 50th league game as Liverpool goal keeper and recorded yet another clean sheet, producing a new record of 28 shut-outs inside his first 50 games in the league—beating the previous record held by Ray Clemence since 1971.

Reina performed outstandingly during the 2005-06 season and was gifted with the golden gloves award for most clean sheets in the league—notching up an impressive 20 shut-outs for the whole campaign.

The Spanish goal keeper won the first trophy with his new club by contributing to the memorable 2006 FA Cup final victory over a battling West Ham. Despite some key mistakes during the game, he saved three out of the four penalty kicks against him and helped Liverpool win the prestigious competition for the seventh time.

After a calamitous start to the 2006-07 season, Reina started an incredible run of form that led to a man of the match display in the Champions League semi-final victory over Chelsea—saving two out of the three penalties taking in the shoot-out.

When Pepe Reina featured in Liverpool’s 2007 cup final loss to AC Milan; he became only the third player to ever follow in his father’s footsteps and feature in a European final.

After another two consecutive Golden Gloves awards for the 2006-07 and the 2007-08 seasons, Reina went on to break another long standing Liverpool goal keeping record. He managed to record 50 clean sheets in just 92 league games for the club and broke the previous record by three games.

Many great people have stated that attackers win games but defenders win seasons.

Pepe Reina is doing more than enough to ensure that Liverpool have the best possibly chance at success and the Spanish keeper has proven in a short space of time that he will quickly become a Liverpool legend for life.