STEVIE WONDER
Steven Gerrard may be fearless on the pitch but, as he confides to Mike Pattenden, it was a completely different story when it came to the birth of his daughters.
It’s not uncommon these days for a man to have two families. Steven Gerrard certainly has, but his dual existence is not the product of separation or divorce – though his parents split a few years ago – but of a lifelong love affair with Liverpool Football Club.
Gerrard is devoted to his wife, two children, the parents who brought him up and the club he serves as captain. In turn they are there for him, celebrating with him during the highs, supporting him during the lows. The loyalty, honour and love he shares are key factors in making him the person he is, the force of nature that moves across a football pitch.
The two latest additions to his circle are Lily-Ella, two, and Lexie, four months, the two daughters whose names are stitched into his boots. “I always wanted kids,” he says, sat in a stark interview room off the media area at Liverpool’s Melwood training ground. “I wanted to settle down, have a family and I didn’t want to wait to the end of my career to start having it.”
Gerrard comes from a close-knit family and unlike most young super-rich players who enjoy a lavish bachelor lifestyle, he could not wait to have one of his own. He briefly dated soap star and Hell’s Kitchen winner Jennifer Ellison before meeting her friend Alex Curran when he was just 21 and she 22. Two years later they had their first child, Lily-Ella. The couple are currently planning a lavish wedding next summer with the girls as bridesmaids but, despite experiencing his share of hard knocks on and off the pitch, Gerrard was unprepared for the trauma of birth.
“Nothing prepared me for seeing Alex go through that pain, it was such a relief when the baby was actually born,” he says with a shake of the head, adding with a smile, “I made sure I stayed up the Kop End because it can get a bit messy down the Anfield Road End.”
The couple were undeterred. Eighteen months later Lexie arrived and the delivery was even harder. “Alex was in such pain I didn’t even realise what sex the baby was for a while, I was just glad it was all over. Then I was counting all the bits.”
Despite earning the sort of wages commensurate with a top Premiership player, Gerrard avoided the temptation to go private for the births.
“I try and live as normally as possible, so why not bring up my kids the same way?” he says. “I want them to grow up nice, wellbalanced people, so that's they way it’ll stay.
Just because I’m a well-paid footballer I don’t have to go private for everything.” Will that extend to school? “I’m not sure," he frowns, as if considering the thought of his children installed at a posh school. “I want them to have a good education that’s for sure but I’m not sure whether that means going to a private school. We’ll see. Alex and I talk all the time about how we want to bring them up. We’ve both got their best interests at heart and we’ll always be there for them.”
Whatever happens his two daughters will grow up in a totally different environment to the one in which Gerrard was brought up. He recently moved his family to a £2 million mansion in Formby that boasts seven bedrooms an indoor swimming pool, home cinema and landscaped garden. Their father’s weekly packet of £100,000 will fund everything from schooling to music lessons and ponies but the concern for Gerrard, for any wealthy parent, is that the girls will become spoilt and divorced from reality. “Obviously they’ll grow up well off but it’s our responsibility to keep them grounded and to respect |
other people,” he shrugs. “I suppose I’m like my dad in that respect. I don’t think my parents made many mistakes. They were fair, they always encouraged me and took an interest in my schoolwork.”
Likewise he has no intention of allowing his daughters to turn into chat-room-obsessed kids who spend all day in their rooms surrounded by all the expensive hardware his wealth will no doubt be called upon to purchase. “There’s so many diversions indoors these days that the danger is they can end up there all day. I’m a great believer in them getting outside. It’s important that they play sport, learn how to be part of a team, how to win and lose, to play fair – things that will help them in life as they grow up.” Whatever sport they choose to pursue Lilly- Ella and Lexie’s experience will be radically different to their father’s. Gerrard learnt his football on a square of wasteland in front of his council estate in Huyton, an area known in local rhyming slang as ‘Two Dogs Fightin’ because of its tough reputation. It’s a far cry from genteel Formby situated across the Wirral peninsula but Gerrard has never forgotten where he is from. “They do call it that but it sounds so cheesy,” he says, fixing me with his blue-eyes. “It was rough yes, but I wouldn’t change my upbringing one bit. I’m from a council estate and it’s one of the reasons I’m where I am today.”
Huyton is little more than a mile from the room we sit in at Melwood’s plush training complex though it feels like a lifetime away. It was the focus of a major housing development regeneration scheme after the war, throwing up well documented problems. Living on those streets undoubtedly meant growing up fast. “I suppose I was streetwise but I wasn’t really trouble, apart from a few smashed windows. We rarely had the police at the front door.” Rarely? “Well I was caught stealing once and had me wrist slapped,” he say shifting uncomfortably in his seat. “I went into the Woolworth’s one day and nicked some pens and paper but the security guy collared me on the way out. I was sat down in a room and the police got called. I was in bits because I thought it was all over. I thought the club would find out and I'd get kicked out of school but I got a warning and that was it. I behaved myself after that.”
It’s easy to paint in clichés, particularly in this city, but just as actors Rex Harrison and Sue Johnston rose from the Huyton streets, so did Steven Gerrard. Rather than the hub-cap nicking scally his confession suggests, he was a normal kid from a loving family. His father did what he could to make ends meet during notoriously tough times in the city – bricklaying, tarmacing, whatever paid the bills.
The two share a very close bond and it was he who ensured his son grew up wearing red, not the blue of Everton. “He’d tell me about all the great teams and show me videos of Dalglish and Hughes picking up trophies. There was never any doubt which shirt I wanted to play in,” he says. By the age of eight Gerrard had been taken in by his second family, Liverpool FC. His father was still there with advice, always at the touchline. Apart from the frosty morning his son pulled on a pair of gloves for a match. Then he walked off in disgust. “He hates seeing players in gloves or tights,” laughs Gerrard. It makes him sound like a real disciplinarian but he’s just very old school. He thinks it’s a man’s game, that’s all.”
No one can doubt that Steven Gerrard plays a man’s game. He is a warrior on the pitch, and he’s demonstrated it time and again. In the European Cup Final in Istanbul he was an inspiration for a team 3-0 down at half-time, prompting an historic fightback. The victory meant he was the youngest skipper to lift the European Cup in the club's history.
In May he hauled his team back again, this time in the F.A. Cup Final as West Ham threatened to produce an unexpected victory. His two strikes – the 32-yard missile with which he equalised, ranking among the |
finest goals ever scored in the competition – and an assist, plus a converted penalty in the shoot-out are the reasons the match has gone down in legend as the ‘Gerrard Final’. “I don’t like that,” he says flatly, “I got the headlines but there were 10 other players on the pitch.” Come on, Liverpool would have been buried that day without his superhuman effort. “I suppose I felt that the responsibility to turn it round was mine,” he shrugs, selfeffacingly. “I’m the captain, I believe it’s down to me to try and change things when they’re going against us.” Where he gets his indomitable spirit from he struggles to say, suggesting it’s “experience”. Hardly. It’s down to character, pride, guts and the sense of honour he feels in playing for his family and his club. It’s the overriding reason his fellow professionals voted him the PFA Player Of The Year last season.
Another factor is the deep, spiritual debt he feels towards his cousin Jon-Paul Gilhooley. Just ten years old, Gilhooley was the youngest victim of the 1989 Hillsborough Disaster and Gerrard, just nine at the time, was badly affected by the tragedy. Gilhooley’s name is carved on the memorial by the Shankly Gates with those of the other 95 victims, a constant reminder every time he arrives at the ground. “It’s true that I play for Jon-Paul. He adored Liverpool with the same passion that fills me whenever I pull on that red shirt,” he says. “It gave me an extra determination to succeed.”
Liverpool continue to look after the families of the Hillsborough disaster and the club was there for Gerrard when his own family fell apart in 2002. After 20 years of marriage his parents Paul and Julie split up. The three had moved to a new home in Whiston leaving his brother the house in Huyton but it didn’t stop the couple's differences from surfacing. Gerrard, ever sensitive to his family, saw his form go to pot. He was subbed and dropped by manager Gérard Houllier before he could finally bear to admit the truth. Then all rallied round. “It was like a bereavement. It was desperate to watch them tearing each other apart, it destroyed my game for a while,” he admits.
Gerrard’s honesty makes him not just the player he is, but the person he is. With his regulation short back and sides, he is polite and quietly spoken. A pale blue Prada polo top offers the only hint of wealth. There’s no chunky jewellery in evidence nor meaningful Sanskrit tattoos. His old fella would not approve. “My family keep my feet on the ground,” he agrees. “It’s down to them that I’m still a nice person. And I think I am,” he adds.
Can he park his shiny red Aston Martin outside his old estate in the knowledge it won’t have been keyed when he comes out? “I do it every day. People know who I am and they know I haven’t changed and turned into something else. Yes I’m well paid but I’m the same person inside.”
This may be true of most people, especially in a city where being captain of Liverpool commands respect, but jealousy is never far away. There was outrage when Gerrard looked like he might leave the club in a £35 million transfer to Chelsea in July 2005. During the protests one fan was caught on camera burning his shirt outside the ground, prompting Gerrard to come to the conclusion that he was no longer wanted.
“It was the lowest point of my career,” he recalls. “I was a complete mess but I deserved to be treated with more respect.”
Once again his father was there for advice and support, leading to a change of heart.
Gerrard turned down the flattering advances and intends to remain at the club for life.
Liverpool FC are family – and you don’t walk away from family. ■ |
