Exclusive: ‘Steven Gerrard called me his Liverpool captain – now I want to knock them out of the FA Cup’

Steven Gerrard called me his Liverpool captain – now I want to knock them out of the FA Cup’

Plymouth Argyle defender Victor Palsson once captained Steven Gerrard in Liverpool’s reserves team and will be out to shock his old club in a dream FA Cup clash on Sunday

Plymouth Argyle defender Victor Palsson used to be on Liverpool’s books

Victor Palsson has played in 10 different countries for 13 clubs and speaks five languages fluently.

So when Plymouth Argyle’s Icelandic defender meets his former employers Liverpool in the FA Cup fourth round on Sunday, there will be nothing lost in translation – especially if the lingo is English, German, Danish, Swedish or his native tongue.

Palsson, 33, may not be a name on the lips of the Kop masses because he left Anfield without making a first-team appearance.

But he was good enough to captain Liverpool’s reserves at 18, and he will always treasure the memory of being Steven Gerrard’s skipper when the England legend, preoccupied with legal affairs, turned out for the stiffs to maintain match fitness.

Palsson was not in the Iceland team who humiliated Roy Hodgson’s England at Euro 2016, but he was an injured squad member sat in the stands when they caught Gareth Southgate’s complacent strollers napping again at Wembley last June.

He landed at Argyle after reuniting with Wayne Rooney, who had previously managed him at DC United in the States in a globetrotting career which has also taken him, in batting order, from Island to Denmark, England, Scotland, Holland, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Germany and Belgium.

With 47 international caps sprinkled across 11 years on his nomadic odyssey, Palsson is a walking billboard for the adage ‘Have boots, will travel.’

But as he plots a booby-trap for his old club in the wild West Country, he wishes he had made more of his time on Merseyside.

Fourteen years after leaving Liverpool, Palsson’s accent is still laced with broad traces of Scouse and he said: “Looking back, I wouldn’t say I have spent too much of my career running away because it runs much deeper than that.

“To explain fully who I am and where I came from would be a long conversation in itself, but did I make too many moves? Probably, yes.

“Would I have done things a bit differently if I had the chance again? Absolutely, yes. Do I regret it? Absolutely not – you can’t put a price on the football experiences and life experiences I’ve had since I left Reykjavik as a 17-year-old to sign my first professional contract in Denmark.”