I was never going to be disloyal to Liverpool, says Daniel Agger
Agger kept to his principles despite interest from Barcelona
Last updated at 12:01AM, November 22 2013
As far as Daniel Agger is concerned, the signature on his contract is as permanent as the ink on his skin. Its durability may have been tested during the summer when Barcelona offered him the Champions League football he craved, but the stylish Liverpool defender had a commitment and not even the prospect of signing for the club of his boyhood dreams could tempt him to break it.
“I think you are always tempted when stuff like that happens,” Agger says. “You would not be human not to be, but I keep to my principles. If I have a contract here for two or three years and the club want me to stay, then I stay with them because, when I signed that deal, that’s what I told them — that I’d be here for four years. I can’t just turn around and say I don’t want to be here any more.
“It might have been different if the club had said it was in the best interests of both of us to go our different ways. In that case Barcelona would have been the best place to go, without a doubt, but the club came to me and told me they wanted me here. I’m not saying I wasn’t tempted, because anyone would be in that situation, but for the club to say that to me was enough. I am happy here and my family is happy here also and that’s a good combination.”
In an era when few believe that players’ contracts are worth the paper they are written on, the Denmark captain’s refusal to buckle when Barcelona followed Manchester City by attempting to sign him is testament to his own principles, a word that he used repeatedly throughout a rare interview. A reserved and modest figure who shuns the limelight that others crave, Agger is at his most animated when discussing his beliefs, particularly his philosophy about how football should be played.
As a ball-playing defender, he is a purist. His ideals dovetail perfectly with the way that Brendan Rodgers wants Liverpool to play, but during Roy Hodgson’s brief spell as manager Agger was asked to be more direct, an approach that the 28-year-old had great difficulty with. “I can play it,” he insists. “Anybody can play that style of football — ‘let’s just do it because that’s the easy way to do it’ — but I wouldn’t be comfortable with it.
“I agree that there’s a time when you have to do it [go direct] but you have to find a balance in how you play and, if I had to do that every time, I don’t think I would be the best to do that. There would be a lot of people in front of me. The idea here is to have possession. I know it’s not always the team with the most possession that wins but all logic suggests that, if you can keep the ball, it’s more difficult for the other team to score. It also becomes easier for you to score if you have 70 per cent possession.
“Tradition is a big thing at this football club. It’s what the club is all about, but I also accept that every manager who’s been here has his own ideas and, as a footballer, it’s important to be able to adapt to a certain extent to how the manager wants you to play. But it’s easy with Brendan because he wants us to play football and he wants us to play the way I think the way the game should be played.
“So, for me, that’s easy compared to other times when we went down a more direct route. You have to adapt, but there’s only so far you can go; you can’t change completely because then you would stop being the player that you are. I am here for a reason and I think Liverpool bought me for a reason.”
As well as preparing for tomorrow’s clash with Everton at Goodison Park, Agger has been working on his own charity initiative aimed at funding a telephone helpline for vulnerable children in his native Denmark. His involvement gives him a sense of perspective, particularly in relation to the privileged life he enjoys as a footballer, but he accepts that in the white heat of the Merseyside derby the only thing that will matter is Liverpool getting a result against their local rivals.
“I look at my kids and I know that they have a great life, but there are so many others who aren’t in such a good situation,” Agger says. “That’s not fair because they can’t choose themselves. These things are decided for them. It [football] is not as important and when we sit here it’s easy to say that but when you’re out on the pitch it is the only thing that matters.
“But I know there are more important things. It might not seem like that during a big game — especially one that’s so fast and so competitive that you sometimes feel like you can’t put your foot on the ball — but once you get back to normality your sense of perspective comes back. With the charity, it’s quite simple: I feel I can do it, I feel that I can make a positive difference. Football has given me so much. I have a good life, my kids have a good life but there are so many kids out there who have a bad start to life.
“I know a guy who was doing computer antivirus. He got the product for free from the best producer of antivirus and when you go to the website — charityantivirus.com — there are two boxes that you can click on. One allows you to get to download the antivirus for free and the other asks you to pay what you can for it. We are trying to appeal to people’s conscience and see if they will pay maybe £1, it doesn’t have to be any more than that. The main thing the money is used for is for kids who are in some kind of need. I know that I can’t save all of them but there are things that I can do.”
Agger kept to his principles despite interest from Barcelona
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- Agger kept to his principles despite interest from Barcelona Bradley Ormesher
Last updated at 12:01AM, November 22 2013
As far as Daniel Agger is concerned, the signature on his contract is as permanent as the ink on his skin. Its durability may have been tested during the summer when Barcelona offered him the Champions League football he craved, but the stylish Liverpool defender had a commitment and not even the prospect of signing for the club of his boyhood dreams could tempt him to break it.
“I think you are always tempted when stuff like that happens,” Agger says. “You would not be human not to be, but I keep to my principles. If I have a contract here for two or three years and the club want me to stay, then I stay with them because, when I signed that deal, that’s what I told them — that I’d be here for four years. I can’t just turn around and say I don’t want to be here any more.
“It might have been different if the club had said it was in the best interests of both of us to go our different ways. In that case Barcelona would have been the best place to go, without a doubt, but the club came to me and told me they wanted me here. I’m not saying I wasn’t tempted, because anyone would be in that situation, but for the club to say that to me was enough. I am happy here and my family is happy here also and that’s a good combination.”
In an era when few believe that players’ contracts are worth the paper they are written on, the Denmark captain’s refusal to buckle when Barcelona followed Manchester City by attempting to sign him is testament to his own principles, a word that he used repeatedly throughout a rare interview. A reserved and modest figure who shuns the limelight that others crave, Agger is at his most animated when discussing his beliefs, particularly his philosophy about how football should be played.
As a ball-playing defender, he is a purist. His ideals dovetail perfectly with the way that Brendan Rodgers wants Liverpool to play, but during Roy Hodgson’s brief spell as manager Agger was asked to be more direct, an approach that the 28-year-old had great difficulty with. “I can play it,” he insists. “Anybody can play that style of football — ‘let’s just do it because that’s the easy way to do it’ — but I wouldn’t be comfortable with it.
“I agree that there’s a time when you have to do it [go direct] but you have to find a balance in how you play and, if I had to do that every time, I don’t think I would be the best to do that. There would be a lot of people in front of me. The idea here is to have possession. I know it’s not always the team with the most possession that wins but all logic suggests that, if you can keep the ball, it’s more difficult for the other team to score. It also becomes easier for you to score if you have 70 per cent possession.
“Tradition is a big thing at this football club. It’s what the club is all about, but I also accept that every manager who’s been here has his own ideas and, as a footballer, it’s important to be able to adapt to a certain extent to how the manager wants you to play. But it’s easy with Brendan because he wants us to play football and he wants us to play the way I think the way the game should be played.
“So, for me, that’s easy compared to other times when we went down a more direct route. You have to adapt, but there’s only so far you can go; you can’t change completely because then you would stop being the player that you are. I am here for a reason and I think Liverpool bought me for a reason.”
As well as preparing for tomorrow’s clash with Everton at Goodison Park, Agger has been working on his own charity initiative aimed at funding a telephone helpline for vulnerable children in his native Denmark. His involvement gives him a sense of perspective, particularly in relation to the privileged life he enjoys as a footballer, but he accepts that in the white heat of the Merseyside derby the only thing that will matter is Liverpool getting a result against their local rivals.
“I look at my kids and I know that they have a great life, but there are so many others who aren’t in such a good situation,” Agger says. “That’s not fair because they can’t choose themselves. These things are decided for them. It [football] is not as important and when we sit here it’s easy to say that but when you’re out on the pitch it is the only thing that matters.
“But I know there are more important things. It might not seem like that during a big game — especially one that’s so fast and so competitive that you sometimes feel like you can’t put your foot on the ball — but once you get back to normality your sense of perspective comes back. With the charity, it’s quite simple: I feel I can do it, I feel that I can make a positive difference. Football has given me so much. I have a good life, my kids have a good life but there are so many kids out there who have a bad start to life.
“I know a guy who was doing computer antivirus. He got the product for free from the best producer of antivirus and when you go to the website — charityantivirus.com — there are two boxes that you can click on. One allows you to get to download the antivirus for free and the other asks you to pay what you can for it. We are trying to appeal to people’s conscience and see if they will pay maybe £1, it doesn’t have to be any more than that. The main thing the money is used for is for kids who are in some kind of need. I know that I can’t save all of them but there are things that I can do.”
