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However, in an interesting twist of fate, the Ukrainian was actually once a teammate of Jurgen Klopp, who would go on to become a Liverpool legend long after Voronin had left.

Photo credit should read PAUL ELLIS/AFP via Getty Images

At the time he joined Liverpool in 2007, Voronin was coming off the back of three decent seasons with Bayer Leverkusen in which he scored 37 goals in 119 games.

Prior to that, Voronin spent three years at Mainz after joining in 2000.



Amazingly, the Ukraine international was signed as a teammate of Klopp’s with the legendary former Liverpool manager still part of the playing squad.

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Klopp spent half a season playing alongside Voronin before stepping up to lead the team in February 2001.

As the German recalled in October 2021, though, he did not always play his former colleague as much as he would have liked.

“If Andriy had known just one day in his life how good he could have been, it would have been absolutely amazing,” Klopp told the official Mainz YouTube channel.

And then Andriy came to my room during the training camp and asked, ‘Kloppo, why do I never start?’

“I said, ‘Do you want the honest answer?’ He said, ‘Yes.’ So I said, ‘Because you don’t complain when you don’t start!’

“He replied, ‘Fair enough!’ And he carried on not starting.”

Although Voronin was not initially a key player for Klopp, he went on to become one.

During the 2002/03 season, the then 24-year-old top-scored in the Bundesliga 2, bagging 20 goals.

A move to the Bundesliga with Koln followed, before Voronin joined Leverkusen a year later and eventually ended up at Liverpool.

Stuck behind Torres, though, things did not go to plan for Andriy at Anfield.

Voronin returned to Liverpool for 2009/10, playing a further 12 times without scoring before leaving for Dynamo Moscow.

The presence of Torres was an obvious problem, but it was also clear that Voronin simply wasn’t good enough for Liverpool.