Igor Biscan made a bright start to his Liverpool career before falling out of favour and becoming a figure of fun until his final redemptive season at Anfield saw him become one unsung hero of astonishing run to Champions League glory
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Igor Biscan pictured with Steven Gerrard back in 2000
Igor Biscan pictured with Steven Gerrard back in 2000
On this day in Liverpool history, Igor Biscan signed for the Reds from Dinamo Zagreb for £5.5m. Dan Kay took a look back at the ups and downs of the 'Super Croat's' time at Anfield.
Dan passed away suddenly in May 2023 aged 45. A foundation has been set up in memory of the Hlilsborough campaigner. The Dan Kay Foundation, co-founded by a collection of Dan’s family, friends and ECHO colleagues, aims to tackle stigma around mental health while spreading kindness and creating opportunities for those less fortunate.
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Whenever Liverpool’s miraculous Champions League triumph in Istanbul is recalled, chief among the aspects which have people shaking their heads in wonderment are the names of some of the players who made that heady night in the Turkish capital possible.
With the greatest of respect to them, Djimi Traore and Milan Baros - who both started against AC Milan in the Ataturk Olympic Stadium - along with the likes of Neil Mellor, Florent Sinama-Pongolle, Anthony Le Tallec and Antonio Nunez, who all made valuable contributions en route to the final, are unlikely to ever make anyone’s all-time LFC XI and would, in all likelihood, have never been anywhere near getting into the far more accomplished Reds side that won the club’s sixth European Cup fourteen years later in Madrid.
Yet their names are written forever into Anfield folklore because of the cameo roles they played during Rafa Benitez’s side’s astonishing road to glory in 2004/05 - as is that of another unsung hero, who never saw a second of action in that season’s Champions League final, but without whose efforts over the course of the campaign Liverpool may well not have even got out of the group stages.
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Igor Biscan arrived at Anfield with a glowing reputation and made a hugely positive start before falling out of favour and becoming a figure of ridicule, after being pressed into service in an unfamiliar position, until his final season on Merseyside became one of ultimate redemption and established his status as a cult hero.
The midfielder had already amassed an impressive amount of playing experience in his native Croatia before Gerard Houllier brought him to Anfield in December 2000. Having been talented enough to represent the national team at youth level, Biscan worked his way through the ranks at Dinamo Zagreb and, following a loan spell with NK Samovar, had established himself as a key figure in one of the the club’s most successful sides, helping them a fourth successive league title and impressive wins over FC Porto and Ajax in their first ever Champions League campaign in 1998/99. His progress saw him named captain and he led his team to another league title the following year, his powerful presence in midfield drawing further attention when Zagreb managed a creditable goalless draw away to reigning European champions Manchester United. His reputation was further bolstered by stellar showings in the European Under-21 Championships in the summer of 2000 and, with clubs such as Juventus, AC Milan, Ajax and Barcelona showing interest, the Liverpool manager swooped.
By the end of September, a £5.5m deal was agreed to bring him to Anfield once the Croatian season shut down for its winter break and he duly arrived in time for the hectic Christmas period with Houllier jubilant at having beaten off some of Europe’s top clubs to secure the 22-year-old’s signature.
"We are delighted to have him, especially as so many other top European clubs were interested,” the Frenchman said after securing the Reds' 19th overseas signing in just over two years. “He is an international player and a class player. We've been watching him for a long time. He is a versatile footballer as he showed against Scotland recently when he played on the right of midfield. But I see him as a defensive midfielder. The price isn't low. We are aware of that, but we are living in an era of football where you have to buy the potential because the finished article is too expensive. We are trying to build a team and we now have a side that is starting to blossom. Igor will be part of that.”
It was a huge opportunity for the young Croat and he admitted years later to the official Liverpool website that he didn’t truly appreciate the scale of the challenge ahead of him. “I didn’t know Liverpool were after me”, he recalled.
“I was in some talks with some other clubs; not me personally but Dinamo Zagreb. I went to Amsterdam to visit Ajax, they invited me to come there to get to know the club. There were rumours they would buy me but in the end, when Liverpool made an offer that was it. That was the best offer for me and for the club and I made the decision. That was it. I was young, I didn’t really know where I was going and the stature of the club and the importance of the club and how big it really is because when I was growing up, in the media in that time some other clubs were maybe dominating and were more popular than Liverpool. So, to be honest, I didn’t really know how big it is. The original plan was for me to arrive in England in January; my season in Croatia finished at the beginning of December and they told me they would give me a little rest because that’s what usually happens in Croatia and most of Europe. But as soon as we finished in Croatia they said, because of injuries, I need to go straight ahead to join the team as soon as possible.”
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The Reds were in the midst of a marathon season which would ultimately stretch to 63 games as Houllier’s men - who had missed out on a first ever qualification for the Champions League on the final day of the previous campaign in the Frenchman’s first term in sole charge - won an unprecedented cup treble and played every possible match available to them. With the squad already starting to show signs of wear and tear having played 25 games by the first week of December, Biscan was handed a first appearance just days after arriving on Merseyside, being thrown on as a second-half substitute against Ipswich Town at Anfield. The newly-promoted ‘Tractor Boys’ had been the season’s surprise package so far and were harbouring Champions League ambitions of their own after a superb start to the campaign. That continued with a 1-0 victory, only their second ever at Anfield, which took them three points clear of Liverpool and into third place in the league table, but the debutant showed enough to earn himself a start in the Reds’ next league game away to Manchester United.
Less than two years previously, after an agonising FA Cup fourth-round defeat at Old Trafford, which saw Liverpool lead for almost the entire match after Michael Owen’s early header, before being left shell-shocked when stoppage-time goals from Dwight Yorke and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer sent them crashing out, Houllier had vowed: “One day we will beat Manchester United. I promise you that”. And this would prove to be the day, Danny Murphy’s well-placed free kick on the stroke of half-time in front of the Stretford End securing a precious three points and a first win over Alex Ferguson’s side anywhere in five years and at Old Trafford in 10.
It was United’s first home league defeat in almost three years and, while inevitably Houllier’s men had to soak up a fair amount of pressure from the home team, the obdurate platform provided by Biscan alongside Steven Gerrard in the middle of the park ensured the result was no fluke, the BBC writing afterwards: “The central midfield partnership of Gerrard and Biscan were particularly impressive.” While the Guardian were more even more effusive in their praise of the Reds’ Croatian debutant, saying: “Gerrard enjoyed solid support from Igor Biscan, newly arrived from Dinamo Zagreb and justifying his inclusion at the expense of Gary McAllister with a display of unflustered tackling and passing that belied the passions that always accompany this fixture.”
The following weekend the country’s other leading side Arsenal pitched up at Anfield just two days before Christmas and Biscan, who kept his place in the team and again played the full 90 minutes, helped ensure it was a happy Yuletide for the Reds by producing another dominant showing in midfield as goals from Gerrard, Owen, Nick Barmby and Robbie Fowler saw a 4-0 win over the out-played and out-fought Gunners who were now only two points ahead of Houllier’s men. It was the perfect start for Biscan, whose ability to slot into the team at short notice and play his part in such significant results had Kopites dreaming of glory the following May as they tucked into their turkey.
“It was a special moment for me to make my debut against Ipswich so soon after signing,” he recalled. “We lost that game, so the atmosphere in the dressing room after the game was not good, but I will remember that day forever. I then made my full debut at Old Trafford. Back then Man United was the team to beat and winning against our biggest rival at Old Trafford on my full league debut was great.”
A third successive start for the Croat followed on Boxing Day at Middlesbrough but the winning streak came to an end as a Sander Westerveld error handed the Teesiders a 1-0 victory and, although a first Liverpool goal followed the following month when he raced through and finished calmly in front of the Kop as the Reds overturned a first-leg deficit to beat Crystal Palace 5-0 and reach the League Cup final, a red card against Rotherham United in the FA Cup third round had already signalled the settling-in problems he would endure.
“It was difficult from the start,” he admitted. “But at the beginning, maybe because of the adrenaline and how big everything was and the games – suddenly you play against some of the top players in the world, against the top teams in the world, and you play with some great players, and the atmosphere and everything is just so big – you don’t think about tiredness or fatigue. The first four or five games I was okay physically and mentally, but then I started to feel pain everywhere because the change of everything was just too big; the intensity, the physical demands were different to what I was used to in Croatia. I had some problems, if I can remember, especially my back was hurting a lot. Then I struggled a bit for the remainder of that season. But you cannot complain when you get a chance to play and that first season I arrived was unbelievable, we won almost everything and there was just no time to think about it because it was game after game in which you needed to win to progress and to give yourself a chance to win something. It was amazing.”
Having already featured in Europe that season for Zagreb, Biscan was cup-tied for Liverpool’s UEFA Cup campaign But Houllier’s insistence in utilising his squad to its full extent to preserve legs for the business end of the campaign still saw him feature regularly during the winter months, and Biscan won his first medal as a Liverpool player a little over two months after arriving when he started the League Cup final against Birmingham City in Cardiff, the Reds eventually triumphing on penalties to end the club’s six-year wait for silverware. His appearances tailed off, however, as the season reached its dramatic conclusion, a second sending off in the Merseyside derby at Goodison Park won so memorably by Gary McAllister’s 44-yard stoppage-time free kick not helping his cause, and he played only four minutes of the last half-dozen Premier League games, not making the squad for either the FA Cup semi-final or the Owen-inspired victory over Arsenal in the Cardiff final.
“It was a rollercoaster season for everybody,” he recalled, “But maybe for me even more because I was really young, and to come from this league and this type of football in this environment to something like that, in which every game is just so big and the atmosphere of the fans and the importance of the games was big. But you don’t really think about it. Of course, I wasn’t playing all the time, but when you prepare for the game you are positive because your team is winning and everything around you is so positive, so it gets you through. In the end it was perfect, a perfect six months and season for us.”
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That was as good as it would get though for Biscan for quite some time. Although he came off the bench in both the Charity Shield and the UEFA Super Cup final early the following campaign, he started only seven Premier League games over the next two seasons - with his brief outings often seeing him shunted often out of position wide in midfield or occasionally in defence. The consistent progress of the Houllier era may have initially continued with a second-place finish in 2002 despite the manager’s life-threatening heart problem ruling him out for months, but the Croat’s development stalled and forced him to consider his future even if he was brutally honest as to why he felt he had fallen out of favour.
“The main reason is that I wasn’t good enough," he admitted. “It took me some time to really adapt and understand and find my place in the team, within the team in this type of football. It wasn’t easy and I didn’t play much. I just needed to change some things about the way I think about the game; then I did it and when I did it, when I changed some things, of course I still had to be patient and give myself a little bit of time. It was not easy, to be honest. I left home at a very young age, didn’t speak the language very well, and on top of that I came there to play at a level that I had never played at before. The team was full of international players, as well as some of the best English players, and you soon realise that you are in for a bit of a tough time. I struggled a lot during those two seasons. I will put it simply – I just was not good enough to play more. At some point I wanted to leave because I wanted a fresh start and had some options abroad, but the manager convinced me to stay. In the end that proved to be the right decision.”
Part of Houllier’s reasoning in persuading him to stay was because he had earmarked Biscan for a significant positional change. Although Liverpool had started the 2002/03 campaign well and led the Premier League going into November, things tailed away badly to such an extent the Reds failed to even qualify for the Champions League with not even another League Cup final victory in Cardiff - this time over Manchester United - preventing the growing feeling they were beginning to go backwards. With Roman Abramovich’s takeover of Chelsea during that summer of 2003 changing the financial landscape of English football, and Liverpool’s first-choice centre-back pairing of Sami Hyypia and Stephane Henchoz nearing their 30s, Houllier identified Biscan as a credible option at the heart of his defence and spoke before the start of the new campaign as to why he felt that was where the Croat would play his best football.
"I like him in this position,” the Frenchman said. “He is strong, powerful and quick, which are attributes I like. He could be good cover in that central defensive role. It will be his position in the future. In time he could be an awesome centre-back. Sometimes he loses the ball when he passes, but then who doesn't? I prefer players who try things”
Although Biscan would start the season opener against Chelsea, injures to Henchoz and Jamie Carragher soon saw him pressed into service at centre-back and he would play 39 games in all competitions, the highest tally of his Liverpool career. But it was a campaign of toil for both the Reds, who never managed to recover from a poor start to even hint at any involvement in the title race, and the Croatian himself who never looked entirely comfortable in his new surroundings. Matters reached a head at Marseille in the second leg of Liverpool’s UEFA Cup quarter-final - their last chance of silverware after dismal domestic cup defeats to Bolton Wanderers and Portsmouth - with the tie level at 1-1 after the Anfield first leg. Emile Heskey gave the visitors’ a 15th-minute lead in the Stade Velodrome but nine minutes before half-time Biscan, having been caught out of position, hauled back strike Steve Marlet as he ran through on goal and was shown a red card by Spanish referee Arturo Ibanez, who also awarded the home side a penalty despite the foul appearing to take place outside the penalty area.
Didier Drogba equalised from the spot and Abdoulaye Meite’s second-half header sent the French side into the semi-finals with a furious Houllier - who had a made a beeline for the stadium’s video room at half time to watch the replays so incensed was he by the referee’s decisions following Biscan’s foul - claiming afterwards that Liverpool had not been beaten fairly.
"There was a pull but it was made some three or four yards outside the box,” he fumed. "The referee let it go and played the advantage. If Marlet had scored, would he have disallowed it? You can either play advantage or not. It was dubious to say the very least. Not one of their players even claimed the penalty, so they were as surprised as we were. It was a very generous home penalty, I'd say. I don't think he would have given it the other way around. We don't think we've been beaten fairly. I’ve said before then it is not players who get you the sack but referees. Today this referee delivered a huge blow to this club. "
Houllier’s words were symptomatic of the woes which encircled the club during his final, dispiriting season in charge and perhaps masked the truth that the concerns over Biscan’s unsuitability at centre-back, which others have feared were an accident, waiting to happen had finally come home to roost, borne out by comments made some time later by Steven Gerrard, who had been appointed club captain earlier in the campaign, in his autobiography.
“Biscan made a stupid mistake and got sent off,” Gerrard said. “Marseille took over and we were out, thanks to Biscan. Liverpool would have won the Uefa Cup that year but for that tit’s shirt pulling.”
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Houllier’s men managed to at least salvage something from another desperately disappointing campaign by finishing fourth and qualifying for the Champions League, but the writing was on the wall for the manager, who departed by mutual consent shortly after the season’s end and the expectation was Biscan - who never even made the squad for the final six Premier League fixtures - would soon be following him through the exit door.
The arrival of Spanish coach Rafa Benitez, however, offered a fresh start. Although the former Valencia boss told Biscan - now into the final year of his Liverpool contract - prior to the campaign he was free to leave, with Crystal Palace and Wigan Athletic reportedly both keen, once the Croat indicated his willingness to stay and fight for a place, Benitez’s willingness to listen to where the player felt he could be most effective enabled a glorious swan-song.
“When he first spoke to me, he asked me which position I preferred to play,” Biscan recalled. “I told him I’d like to play as a central midfielder or defensive midfielder. Maybe that was the main thing for me, because I felt I could give my best in that position and it proved to be true. This season was really famous in the end; it was a special season, and for me personally as well because I would say that season was the only season out of the five I was there that I really, I believe, played the level at the top of my abilities. At least that’s what I thought. And I contributed the way I expected myself to contribute during the whole period I was there. Sometimes it just happens like this. Fortunately for me, I managed to reach at least that level of quality that I could play a part.”
Biscan’s appearances under Benitez were limited to brief outings from the bench initially, but he still managed to make his mark with a stunning last-minute finish to put the seal on a 4-2 win away to Fulham in a match which had seen the Reds two goals down at half time, his understated and somewhat bemused celebration as he was mobbed by his team-mates prompting chants of ‘IGOOOR, IGOOOR’ from the away end, which had not been heard since those early weeks of his Liverpool career when he’d brokem into the team with such positive effect. A first start under Benitez followed soon afterwards in a League Cup win at Millwall and, a week later with Gerrard out injured, he was thrust into the side again as the Reds faced a make-or-break Champions League group game away to Deportivo La Coruna.
Only one point from the first nine available had placed hopes of qualifying for the knock-out stages in jeopardy but the Croatian produced a piece of midfield mastery midway through the first half which led to the game’s only goal and secured a crucial victory. Biscan controlled the ball on the halfway line and spun away from his marker before evading three defenders and slipping in John Arne Riise down the left flank, whose cross was turned into his own net by defender Jorge Andrade. It got the Reds’ European hopes firmly back on track but illustrated too how being played in his correct position was key to getting the best from the reinvigorated midfielder.
“Where the Croatian midfielder was once painted as a figure of fun, his dozy expression befitting his rather ponderous and occasional displays in the first team, Biscan is a player reborn,” the Guardian wrote. While the Independent gushed: “Biscan made the most of a rare opportunity to take the playmaking role normally held by Steven Gerrard or Xabi Alonso. His creativity and composure was complemented by tenacious tackling, helping Liverpool establish instant ascendancy.”
It was after Gerrard’s late heroics against Olympiakos that secured qualification from the group stages that Biscan truly came into his own. With the skipper suspended for the first-leg last-16 clash at home to Bayer Leverkusen, Biscan started at Anfield against the Germans and unveiled similar sleight of foot as had been seen against Deportivo to set up the opening goal in Liverpool’s 3-1 win, slaloming through a couple of tackles in the middle of the park before slipping a slide-rule pass through to Luis Garcia who slotted home. Biscan assisted Garcia again in the second leg as Benitez’s men secured a handsome 6-2 aggregate victory to set up a quarter-final against Italian champions Juventus, where he again played a key role, having a hand in the build-up to Garcia’s thumping 30-yarder which put the Reds two up within the first half hour of the tie, and then showing his tactical discipline and tackling ability as the Reds’ secured a goalless draw against the odds to reach the last four.
Despite Alonso’s return in Turin from a broken leg that had kept him out since January, Benitez now clearly recognised Biscan’s calm and under-stated approach fitted perfectly into the tactical template of two holding midfielders, which was proving so effective in Europe, and the Croat was in from the start for both legs of the semi-final against Chelsea as Liverpool defied expectation against Jose Mourinho’s side - who were crowned Premier League champions the weekend in between the two games - to reach the club’s first European Cup final in 20 years. He never made off the bench in Istanbul against AC Milan as the Reds produced one of sport’s greatest ever miracles by fighting back from three goals down at half-time to win on penalties, but his natural disappointment at not figuring in the Turkish capital never turned to resentment even when reflecting back years after the event, which spoke volumes of the modesty and humility which made him so popular among many of his team-mates.
He said: “It’s normal that you’re disappointed but the game was too big for any selfish thoughts. You want your team to win, your club to win because it’s the final, probably the biggest game in club football. You just don’t think in that way. Of course, you hope that you will play, but when you realise a few days before the game that you will not play, then you just keep working hard. You don’t stop preparing. You’re still happy anyway because you are in a final and preparing yourself to play a part if the team needs you, if the coach needs you. It’s disrespectful to say you should play over a teammate if that is the decision that has been made.
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“It was crazy. After the last penalty kick… it’s difficult to explain because of the way we won it, not only this game - that game is a separate story and the most amazing one - but the whole season and especially in that competition, where we struggled a bit and it looked like we weren’t going to make it through the group stage. But once we managed to get from the group stage we just looked solid - very solid and tough. It looked like nobody would beat us. The celebrations in the stadium, after in the hotel and when we came back to the streets of the city, it’s difficult to explain really. It’s a blur, it’s so emotional - really, really emotional. Unbelievable.”
Although Gerrard had been less than complimentary over Biscan’s abilities at the conclusion of the previous term’s European campaign, his Scouse team-mate Jamie Carragher was in no doubt how important the Croatian had been to the Reds’ Champions League heroics. “I felt a bit sorry for him really,” the Bootle-born defender later said. “He was on the bench in the final so he‘s got a Champions League medal. He played as big a part as anybody.”
Now out of contract, Biscan was not offered a new deal by Benitez despite his sterling efforts in the Reds’ path to European glory, with the Spaniard bringing in his former charge from Valencia Momo Sissoko to perform a similar role, and the Croatian signed for Greek side Panathinaikos, where he spent two seasons before returning home to Dinamo Zagreb. Despite a series of frustrating injuries, he led them to further silverware and ended his playing days in 2012 with eight Croatian top-flight titles as well as four Croatian Cups and a Croatian Super Cup to go alongside the medals acquired during his time on Merseyside. A career in management followed initially with Croatian second-tier side Rules, who he led to promotion in 2017, and he won the Slovenian league and cup double with Olimpia Ljubljana the following campaign before returning to Croatia with a brief spell at Rijeka and, since 2019, he has been in charge of Croatia’s Under-21 side.
Despite the contrasting experiences he went through during his four and half years at Anfield, Biscan insisted when featuring in LFC TV’s ‘Added Time’ series that his time on Merseyside made him into the person he is and outlined how a lot of his coaching methods are implemented from what he learned at Liverpool under Houllier and Benitez, who he described as the biggest managers he worked under. His self-effacing nature, however, dismissed the notion he is a ‘cult hero’, which close to two decades after his departure would not be a view shared by the Liverpudlians who enjoyed his often slightly bewildered, just-got-of-bed demeanour and unveiled an iconic banner in honour of him in Istanbul which read ‘Super Croat Igor Biscan Used To Be Atrocious’.
“I am thankful and really appreciate the fans’ support. It is nice to hear that, but I do not consider myself a cult hero,” he told the ECHO in 2021. “I think that there are so many other players who deserve that status before me. I know at times the fans didn’t want to see me in the team. There were other players, and they were better than me. That is ok. That is the reality of the situation but I felt like I always had their support, they were loyal and are special fans. It’s only when you are part of the club you realise how much.
“Liverpool is a place where I learned a lot and I owe a lot. You realise how big the club is and what qualities they teach you there; it stays with you for the rest of your life. I’m in coaching now and there are many things I learned there regarding work ethic, the way you treat everybody around you, the way you go about your job. Everything I learned there, with all the coaches we had, it will always stay with me. Anfield is an iconic stadium. Every time you step on the pitch to play a game there, it is an unbelievable experience. I’ll always be grateful and have so much respect for everything there – the club and the fans – because it’s just something special. It was a happy ending. Having played so many games in that Champions League campaign, winning the competition not only made me very happy but also made me realise that the sacrifices I made and the things I had to do to remain at Liverpool all seem worthwhile. There are perhaps bigger clubs in the world, but I’m not sure any are as special as Liverpool.”
*A version of this article was originally published in July 2022.