Djibril CISSE

 French, flamboyant, frustrating, but undoubtedly unlucky, it is one of Liverpool's great ironies that Djibril Cisse never actually played for the man who signed him. Gerard Houllier had chased the Auxerre forward for over a year before finalising the deal in 2004, and then losing his job. Rafa Benitez arrived and sanctioned the club record £14m purchase, stating that he was a fan of the player when he was manager at Valencia. The sales of Emile Heskey and latterly Michael Owen meant that the goalscoring burden was thrust upon Cisse and new partner Milan Baros, and the duo started upfront in Djibril's debut in Austria, a 2-0 Champions League qualifier win over Grazer AK. Owen departed to Real Madrid a couple of days later, but Cisse looked capable of filling the gap, striking 38 minutes into his league debut at White Hart Lane in a 1-1 draw. He thrilled the Kop on his Anfield debut, a 2-1 win over Manchester City before the defining moment of his Liverpool career in late October. Chasing the ball down the right flank, Cisse was involved in a seemingly innocuous tussle with Blackburn's Jay McEveley. He fell to the floor clutching his left leg; he had fractured both the tibia and fibula.

In the Frenchman's absence, Liverpool's title hopes had ended, they had lost to Burnley in the FA Cup and to Chelsea in the Final of the League Cup, and so all hopes lay with the Champions League. Djibril made his comeback from the bench fifteen minutes from time in the Stadio Delle Alpi as an understrength Liverpool held Juventus at bay to qualify for the semi-finals. He was being eased back into the team slowly, making a number of substitute appearances, including in both legs of the epic semi-final win over Chelsea, before his rehabilitation was complete with 90 minutes, and two goals, against Aston Villa on the final day of the season at Anfield. Djibril watched on for 84 minutes of the most amazing European Cup Final of all time, as Liverpool battled back to level from 3-0 down against Milan, before replacing Baros upfront. He took Liverpool's second penalty in the shootout, sending keeper Dida the wrong way and celebrating wildly (see photo above). He was a European Champion when Jerzy Dudek saved from Andrei Shevchenko; an amazing end to a turbulent first season in England. (Mark Jones)

The arrival of Peter Crouch in the summer of 2005 increased competition for places, but Djibril scored in all three of Liverpool's Champions League qualifying rounds; matches they were required to play in by UEFA, who allowed the club to defend their trophy despite finishing outside of the qualifying places. He emerged from the bench to win Liverpool the European Super Cup in Monaco, hitting a late equaliser against CSKA Moscow before scoring another in extra time then setting up Luis Garcia for a third. Benitez now appeared to prefer a front two of Crouch and Fernando Morientes though, often playing Djibril on the right wing or leaving him out of the team altogether. He was still somewhat of a crowd favourite though, helped no doubt by arguably his best goal in a Liverpool shirt, a wonderful run and finish in a win over Everton at Goodison Park. Liverpool won their last nine league games of the season (in which Djibril scored five goals) to finish third, nine points behind champions Chelsea, but they were focussed on the FA Cup. Cisse played the full 120 minutes of the Final with West Ham in Cardiff, where the Hammers quickly went 2-0 up, but Djibril brought Liverpool back into it with a wonderful volley from a Steven Gerrard pass. Gerrard's last minute heroics and Pepe Reina's shootout saves ensured that another one of Liverpool's finals will go down in history, and Cisse had another medal to his name. The writing was on the wall for the striker now though, and he appeared set for a big money move back to France before fate intervened again. A week before the World Cup, France were taking on China in a friendly when, in another harmless looking challenge, Djibril suffered another horrific leg break, this time to the right leg. Marseille still wanted him though, and took him on loan for the 2006/07 season, before making the move permanent in the summer of 2007, thus ending the Liverpool career of probably one of the club's unluckiest players. (Mark Jones)