Liverpool were 1-0 down to Olympiacos at half-time at Anfield on 8 December 2004, and they needed to win by two goals to stay in the Champions League. Rafa Benítez took off Djimi Traoré and sent on Florent Sinama-Pongolle, a 20-year-old French forward.
Within a minute of the restart, he had equalised.
Neil Mellor and Steven Gerrard did the rest, and Liverpool were on their way to Istanbul. Sinama-Pongolle never got to play on the night in Turkey, but he was the one who got that comeback going.
He made his Liverpool debut 23 years ago today, on 15 October 2003. Over the next three seasons he played 66 times and scored nine goals.
A record-breaker from Réunion
Sinama-Pongolle was born on 20 October 1984 in Saint-Pierre, on the French island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean. He left as a boy to join Le Havre’s academy in France.
He made his name at the 2001 Under-17 World Championship in Trinidad and Tobago. He scored nine goals, a tournament record, including France’s first in the 3-0 win over Nigeria in the final. He also won the Golden Ball as the best player and the Golden Boot as top scorer.
Gérard Houllier moved quickly. He signed Sinama-Pongolle and his cousin, Anthony Le Tallec, from Le Havre, then left them there for two more years to carry on learning. They finally arrived at Anfield in the summer of 2003.
First steps
His debut came off the bench in a 3-0 UEFA Cup win over Olimpija Ljubljana at Anfield. Ten days later he came on against Leeds United and scored his first goal, late on in a 3-1 win.
He made 23 appearances that season, which turned out to be Houllier’s last in charge.
The night against Olympiacos
Benítez arrived in the summer of 2004, and by December Liverpool’s Champions League hopes came down to the last group game. They had to beat Olympiacos by two clear goals, and Rivaldo made that harder still when he put the Greek side ahead with a free-kick.
Two minutes into the second half, Harry Kewell got to the byline and crossed, and the half-time substitute scored from close range.
Mellor came on with 13 minutes left and scored soon afterwards. Then, with four minutes to go, Mellor headed down Jamie Carragher’s long ball and Gerrard drove it in.
Gerrard’s goal is the one everyone remembers. The comeback started with Sinama-Pongolle’s.
A cruel January
On 25 January 2005, Liverpool won 1-0 at Watford to reach the League Cup final. Sinama-Pongolle came on as a substitute and, within minutes, tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.
His season was over. He missed the final in Cardiff, and he missed Istanbul.
He still travelled to Turkey with the squad and saw Liverpool come back from 3-0 down to beat AC Milan. He then missed the parade through the city, and he has since admitted that he cried about it.
The day at Luton
He was back for the start of the 2005-06 season. On 13 September 2005, Benítez left Gerrard on the bench and started Sinama-Pongolle away to Real Betis. After 87 seconds he lifted a chip over the goalkeeper, Antonio Doblas, and Liverpool won 2-1.
His best afternoon in a red shirt came on 7 January 2006, in the FA Cup third round at Luton Town. Liverpool were 3-1 down when he came off the bench, and five minutes later he drove in a low shot to make it 3-2.
Xabi Alonso equalised from long range. Then Sinama-Pongolle headed in Steve Finnan’s cross to put Liverpool in front, and with the Luton goalkeeper, Marlon Beresford, up for a late corner, Alonso added a fifth from inside his own half. Liverpool won 5-3.
It was his last big moment for the club. Later that month he joined Blackburn Rovers on loan for the rest of the season, and Liverpool went on to win the FA Cup without him.
His final appearance for Liverpool came as a substitute in the 2-1 Community Shield win over Chelsea in Cardiff, on 13 August 2006.
Spain and beyond
That season he went on loan to Recreativo de Huelva, who then signed him permanently. He scored 22 goals in 68 league games for them over two seasons, and in July 2008 he joined Atlético Madrid, who finished fourth in La Liga in his first season.
On 14 October 2008 he won his only senior cap for France, in a 3-1 friendly win over Tunisia.
Sporting Lisbon signed him in January 2010. Loans at Real Zaragoza and Saint-Étienne followed, then spells at Rostov in Russia, Chicago Fire in MLS, Lausanne-Sport in Switzerland, where he never made an appearance, and Dundee United.
In 2016 he moved to Thailand to play for Chainat Hornbill, and he stayed until the end of 2018.
Back where it started
In January 2019 he went home to Réunion and rejoined Saint-Pierroise, the club where he had started out.
Before he retired, he scored a hat-trick in a 9-1 Coupe de France win over Étang-Salé. Saint-Pierroise went on to become the first club from France’s overseas territories in more than 30 years to reach the last 32.
These days he works as a pundit for Canal+ in France.
Once a Red
Sinama-Pongolle’s Liverpool numbers don’t jump off the page. He played 66 games and scored nine goals, and too much of his time at Anfield was spent on the bench or in the treatment room.
But he scored the goal that started the Olympiacos comeback, and he scored twice when Liverpool were 3-1 down at Luton. Both seasons ended with Liverpool lifting the trophy.
Not a bad record for a substitute.