‘I’ll do anything for a few quid’
Jamie Carragher has revealed he once had a trial at Man United when he was a schoolboy.
The footballer-turned-pundit is one of Liverpool’s most legendary names. ‘Carra’ spent his entire career at the club, making 737 appearances for the Reds, a tally only bettered by Ian Callaghan.
However, in another world, it could have been Liverpool’s arch-rivals Manchester United where Carragher made a name for himself.
In a clip from The Overlap On Tour: Unseen, the 46-year-old revealed he had trials for United when he was a boy before he’d signed for Liverpool.
He explained to Gary Neville: “I played for a Sunday team and they asked me to play because they were playing Man United. They weren’t normally my team, but it was to make them a bit stronger, so I played in this game and did quite well.”
Jamie Carragher and his trial with Man United
Carragher said that Nobby Stiles had been in charge of the team at the time, and after the game the United legend had a word with Carragher’s dad.
The former defender then explained that just before he was about to sign for Liverpool as a schoolboy, his dad wanted to make the club think it wouldn’t be easy to sign his son.
So, Carragher went to a Manchester United trial weekend at Littleton Road.
When asked by Neville if he made the cut at United, Carragher explained that he was never actually going to go to the Red Devils, and that his dad had “just used it as a thing.”
Fellow Overlap host and pundit Roy Keane then asked if there was any way Carragher could have been tempted by United.
Although Carragher gave an adamant “no!” he admitted it “wasn’t even my decision” at the time. “I was just told I was going to play a game,” he added.
“You kept that quiet!” Neville quipped, joking that Carragher was “treacherous” for having almost played for United.
Carragher responded: “I’ll do anything for a few quid!”
You can watch the full episode of The Overlap on Tour: Unseen Ep 1 on YouTube here.
