Albert Riera spent less than two years at Liverpool, but his first season came in one of the club’s finest title challenges of the Premier League era.
Signed from Espanyol at the end of the summer 2008 transfer window, the Spanish winger made 40 appearances in his first season (28 in the league) as Rafa Benítez’s side lost only two league games all season and finished second, four points behind Manchester United.
He scored five goals in 56 games for the club, the most memorable in a 5-0 win over Aston Villa in March 2009.
From Manacor to Merseyside
Born in Manacor, on Mallorca, on 15 April 1982, Riera came through at RCD Mallorca and helped his local club win the Copa del Rey in 2003.
He moved to Bordeaux that summer, then returned to Spain with Espanyol in 2005.
His first taste of English football was not a happy one. A loan spell at Manchester City in 2006 never took off, and he returned to Espanyol.
Back in Spain, Riera became a key player and scored in the 2007 UEFA Cup final against Sevilla, which Espanyol lost on penalties.
That autumn he won his first Spain cap, coming off the bench against Denmark on 13 October 2007 and scoring late on in a 3-1 win in a Euro 2008 qualifier. He missed out on the squad that went on to win that tournament.
A debut against United
Liverpool paid a reported £8 million to bring him to Anfield.
He did not have to wait long for a big occasion. On 13 September 2008 he made his debut in a 2-1 win over Manchester United at Anfield, and it was an impressive start.
A natural left-footed winger, he gave Benítez the width on the left the side had been missing, stretching defences and opening up room for Gerrard and Torres, though he could drift in and out of games.
His first goal followed on 18 October. Wigan led 2-1 at Anfield with time running out when Riera drew Liverpool level, and Dirk Kuyt went on to win it 3-2.
He scored again in a 3-1 win away to PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League in December, opened the scoring in a 3-0 win over Bolton on Boxing Day, and scored Liverpool’s first goal of 2009 in the 2-0 FA Cup third-round win at Preston.
March 2009
March 2009 produced some of the best football of the Benítez years.
Riera had played in the 1-0 win at the Bernabéu, but a booking there ruled him out of the 4-0 demolition of Real Madrid at Anfield on 10 March, when Ryan Babel started on the left. Four days later, he was back for the 4-1 win at Old Trafford.
Then, on 22 March, Aston Villa came to Anfield and were beaten 5-0. Steven Gerrard scored a hat-trick, but the second goal was Riera’s.
Reina’s long kick sent him through, and he hit a first-time shot past the Villa goalkeeper.
Liverpool had scored 13 goals in three games against Real Madrid, Manchester United and Aston Villa. Riera’s goal was his fifth of the season, and it turned out to be his last for the club.
Liverpool did not lose another league game and finished the season with 86 points. It was not quite enough. United finished four points clear and took the title.
Spain’s late winner
Riera’s form at Liverpool kept him in the Spain side.
On 1 April 2009, in a World Cup qualifier in Turkey, his Liverpool team-mate Xabi Alonso equalised from the penalty spot before Riera scored the winner in stoppage time.
That summer he went to the Confederations Cup with Spain. He finished his international career with 16 caps and four goals.
A falling-out with Benítez
His second season was very different. Riera made only 12 league appearances in 2009-10, and his frustration at the lack of games boiled over in March 2010.
Speaking to Spanish radio, he criticised Benítez, saying the manager had “never sorted out a situation with a player by talking with him,” and described Liverpool as a “sinking ship”.
Liverpool suspended him, and it was clear his time at Anfield was coming to an end.
With Roy Hodgson now in charge, Riera joined Olympiacos on 23 July 2010. He had not played for Spain since 2009, and he missed out on the World Cup that Spain won that summer.
Titles in Greece and Turkey
Riera won the Greek league in his one season at Olympiacos, then moved to Galatasaray in September 2011.
It proved a good move. Galatasaray won the Turkish title in 2012 and again in 2013, giving him two more league winners’ medals.
He returned to England with Watford in the spring of 2014, scoring once in the Championship against Ipswich, before short spells back in Mallorca and in Slovenia. He retired in 2018.
A new career in the dugout
Riera has since built an interesting career as a coach.
After working as an assistant at Galatasaray, he took his first manager’s job at Olimpija Ljubljana and won the Slovenian league and cup double in his first season, 2022-23.
He moved on to Celje in the summer of 2023, but left within a few months to manage Bordeaux, the club he had played for almost two decades earlier, before returning to Celje in 2024.
In 2025, Celje became the first Slovenian side to reach the quarter-finals of a major UEFA competition, going out to Fiorentina in the Conference League, and Riera also won the Slovenian Cup.
In February 2026 he moved to the Bundesliga with Eintracht Frankfurt, but left at the end of the season. In August 2026 he was appointed head coach of Red Star Belgrade.
Once a Red
Riera’s Liverpool career was short, and it did not end the way anyone would have wanted.
But for one season he was a regular in a side that pushed Manchester United all the way for the title.
