Pedro Chirivella recalls nearly getting Liverpool disqualified from League Cup
Pedro Chirivella is a name many Liverpool fans won’t forget over time, more so because of one particular incident in September 2019 than his performances for the senior team.
The Reds took on MK Dons in a League Cup fixture that month, and won the game 2-0. Chirivella came on for Naby Keita before the midway point in the second half.
What could have been a chance to impress Jurgen Klopp into finally considering him for more regular minutes turned into a nightmare for the now Nantes midfielder. After the game, it was found out that the Spaniard wasn’t registered to play in the competition.
This could have seen Liverpool disqualified from that year’s EFL Cup competition, but instead, they were let off with a £200,000 fine. Recalling his conversation with Neil Critchley, Liverpool’s youth team coach, Chirivella told Liverpool Echo:
“[Critchley] went serious and called the lawyers from the academy, who told me that I couldn’t play and they didn’t know when I would be able to because there were papers [international clearance] missing. He said Liverpool were probably going to be kicked out of the League Cup because of it.”
Pedro recalls horror moment
That would be a nightmare for anyone to be involved in, especially on a personal level. Not to mention, it would be an embarrassing situation for those involved in the saga.
“I remember I went home, my father was there, and I started crying like a kid. I wanted to disappear from the city, go back to Valencia and forget Liverpool. The next morning everything came out in the press and on Sky Sports, it was very hard.”
Things resumed to normal shortly after but Chirivella’s career didn’t manage to take off to the extent some believed it would when he was a teenager. Perhaps, being compared with Xabi Alonso at such a young age didn’t do him any favours either.
He joined Nantes in the summer of 2020 after making just 11 senior appearances for the Reds in his career. He has since become an important player for the French team.
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Now 25, it doesn’t seem like he can reach the level needed to pique the interest of Liverpool once again. Although, age is just a number in football and we can’t put it past the ex-LFC midfielder to build on from here and make an even bigger name for himself.
