Nemanja Matic is still going strong at Sassuolo but the vast majority of English supporters will think of him as a player of significant Premier League pedigree.
Matic played for both Chelsea and Manchester United, winning the Premier League title twice with the Blues in 2014-15 and 2016-17.
Nemanja Matic on former Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard
"My son recently asked me, ‘Dad, what was Gerrard like?’ I said he was one of the hardest players to play against, along with Yaya Toure," Matic tells FourFourTwo.
"Amazing players. He asked if I’d seen him slip – I said I was there and told him to look at who the first player to approach Demba Ba to celebrate was. Me!
Gerrard's slip became one of the Premier League's most infamous moments. The Reds captain stumbled, Ba capitalised to score, and that was that for Liverpool's grip on the title. Manchester City won the league by two points.
Jurgen Klopp and Arne Slot would go on to deliver the trophy at Liverpool but Gerrard was already the manager of Rangers by the summer of 2020 when the Reds secured their first championship of the Premier League era.
"I was happy that we won the game, but I felt a bit sorry for Gerrard. He deserved to win at least one Premier League.
"Maybe he could have gone to another club and won five – he was good enough.
"[Jose] Mourinho told us before that game, 'Listen guys, we don’t want to be clowns at their party, we need to destroy the party.'"
Liverpool won the title in 2020 and 2025 but Gerrard had brought his distinguished Liverpool career to a close in 2015
He played for LA Galaxy in Major League Soccer before retiring the following year and launching his coaching career.
Matic played for Manchester United for five seasons and has since had spells in France and Italy, where he remains a Serie A regular at the age of 37.
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