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Emile Heskey on pundit duty for Amazon Prime ahead of the Premier League match between Leicester City and West Ham United at King Power Stadium (Image: 2024 Plumb Images)

Emile Heskey has revealed he rejected a number of clubs to complete a record move to Liverpool.

He also lifted both the European Super Cup and Community Shield in the same year before winning a second League Cup in 2003.

Gerard Houllier had been keen to partner Heskey with Michael Owen upfront for Liverpool having previously been impressed by the pair’s partnership and England youth level.



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And Heskey has revealed how he only had eyes for the Reds once he learned of their interest as he snubbed advances from the likes of Tottenham Hotspur and Roma in the process.

“To be honest, from 16, I’d had, because you play with the national team from a young age, you kind of get attached to someone - people saying they want that player, blah, blah, blah,” he recalled to Joe Cole and Ashley Cole on the ‘Football’s Greatest’ podcast.

“And I’d been looked at from the age of 16, but I wanted to play for Leicester.

Liverpool was my club and I could have gone to Villa, Spurs, could have gone to Dortmund.

“Roma were looking as well, but at the time I wanted to stay in the Premier League and I wanted to go to Liverpool.

What club am I going to go to and where am I going to play, that was my thing.

“But I never really overthought that.

I met with Gerard (Houllier) and he said he was bringing me in to play alongside Michael (Owen).”

Meanwhile, Heskey insists he never thought about the record £11m transfer fee at the time as he enjoyed a strong start at Liverpool.

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But he admits now, 25 years on, that he is much conscious of the fact that he was once the Reds’ record signing.

“The fee is the fee, I can’t do anything about it, but it was a lot at the time,” he said.

“I never thought about it at the time to be honest, it’s only when I look back I go, ‘Wow, okay.’

“The toughest part of moving to a club is are you going to hit the ground running and I was lucky enough to do that.”


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