Liverpool greats recount story of taking European Cup to local pub after 1981 win over Real Madrid

Jordan Henderson and the Champions League trophy will become well-acquainted again if Liverpool beat Real Madrid in Paris on Saturday – though he might not be allowed to take it to his local pub.

Phil Thompson was the Reds’ captain in 1981, when Liverpool also faced Madrid in a European final in Paris.

A 1-0 win at the Parc des Princes ensured the trophy was going back to Merseyside once again following their successes in the European Cup in 1977 and 78.

But this time there was even more of a local flavour to Liverpool’s victory, with Thompson becoming the first Scouser to lift the trophy, and he was determined to make it a memorable homecoming.

The UEFA delegate who handed him the cup might not have expected Thompson to take it to the pub, however.

Alan Kennedy, who scored Liverpool’s crucial goal in that final, told Stats Perform: “First of all, we knew that Phil Thompson had it, but we didn’t know what he was going to do with it.

“We thought he might take it in his car. What was it? I’m sure he had a Ford Capri at the time, and it was a souped-up one, if I remember rightly!

Taking Ol’ Big Ears back to Liverpool for the third time 

Alan Kennedy’s goal won it for us in Paris against Real Madrid in 1981! #UCLfinal pic.twitter.com/myHTFjDmOD

— Liverpool FC (@LFC) May 25, 2022

“He pu
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t it on the front seat and everybody else had to get in the backseat and whatever. But he knew we had to look after it. He knew he was responsible for it.

“I think the rest is history about going to some of the pubs in Kirby [a town on the outskirts of Liverpool].”

There were no such stories after Henderson and his Liverpool team-mates returned to Merseyside victorious in 2019, with the trophy seemingly guarded with greater security these days.

Though Thompson insists the cup never left his sight.

“It wasn’t a mission, it was always in my safe hands,” he added. “I’d always planned that I was taking it back to the Falcon [a pub], I was taking it home to the Falcon in Kirby, so it’s now become quite legendary.

“I travel the country and they say, ‘Is it a myth?’ Or, ‘is it true that you took the European Cup to a pub in Kirby?’ And I did.

“After we’d done the [parade] I put the European Cup in a big velvet bag in the back of the Ford Capri, an awful one, to the Falcon.”

Henderson will surely just be happy to get his hands on the trophy once again, even if bringing it to his local is out of the question.