Before Xabi Alonso, before Luis García, before Istanbul, there was Josemi. When Rafael Benítez arrived at Anfield in the summer of 2004, the first player he brought in was a right-back from Málaga.
He stayed for a season and a half, played 35 times and never scored. But he was there for the night Steven Gerrard rescued the Champions League campaign against Olympiacos, he was on the bench in Istanbul, and he went home with a European Cup winner’s medal.
Early days in Andalusia
Josemi was born on 15 November 1979 and started out with Torremolinos, on the Costa del Sol, before joining Málaga in 1998.
He worked his way up through the reserves and into the first team, and spent six years with the club before Liverpool came calling.
Benítez knew Spanish football inside out after his time at Valencia. Josemi arrived from Málaga that summer as the first signing of the new era.
A flying start
His debut came in Austria on 10 August 2004, in the first leg of the Champions League third qualifying round against Grazer AK.
Gerrard scored twice, Liverpool won 2-0, and the new right-back was off and running.
He was regularly selected at right-back as the season got going, with starts at Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge among them.
A red card at the Cottage
Then came Fulham away on 16 October 2004.
Liverpool were 2-0 down at half-time and fought back to level. With 13 minutes left Josemi was shown a second yellow card for a foul on Luis Boa Morte and sent off.
Ten men or not, Liverpool kept going. Xabi Alonso’s free-kick deflected in off Papa Bouba Diop, and Igor Bišćan added a fourth in stoppage time to complete a 4-2 win.
It was a famous afternoon, but not for Josemi. Suspension followed, then injury problems, and Steve Finnan established himself at right-back in his absence.
Five minutes against Olympiacos
Josemi still had a part to play on one of the great Anfield nights.
On 8 December 2004 Liverpool had to beat Olympiacos by two goals to reach the knockout stage. Rivaldo’s free-kick put the Greeks ahead, and Florent Sinama-Pongolle and Neil Mellor turned it round in the second half.
With five minutes left Josemi came on for Finnan. A minute later Gerrard met Mellor’s knock-down and lashed it in, and the Kop went up.
Josemi was on the pitch when it happened. Not many people can say that.
Istanbul, from the bench
His first season ended with a start in the final league game, a 2-1 win over Aston Villa at Anfield.
Ten days later he was among the substitutes in Istanbul as Liverpool came back from 3-0 down against AC Milan and won on penalties. He never got on, but the medal was his all the same.
He had played seven times in that Champions League campaign, from the first qualifier in Graz onwards.
Monaco and Yokohama
The new season brought more silverware. Josemi started the European Super Cup in Monaco in August 2005, when two goals from Djibril Cissé and one from Luis García beat CSKA Moscow 3-1 after extra time.
In December he started the Club World Championship semi-final against Deportivo Saprissa in Yokohama. Peter Crouch scored twice and Gerrard once in a 3-0 win, before Liverpool lost the final 1-0 to São Paulo.
By then, though, his chances in the Premier League had dried up.
The swap with Villarreal
At the turn of the year Liverpool and Villarreal agreed a swap. Josemi went back to Spain, and the Dutch right-back Jan Kromkamp, who has his own place in this series, came the other way.
He left with 35 appearances, 21 of them in the Premier League, and two winner’s medals in Europe.
A long road after Anfield
At Villarreal he played one league game in 2007-08 as they finished second in La Liga. Mallorca came next, then Iraklis in Greece, a spell back home with Cartagena, and two more Greek clubs, Levadiakos and Skoda Xanthi.
In 2014, at 34, he joined Atlético de Kolkata for the first season of the Indian Super League. His old Liverpool team-mate Luis García was in the same squad.
Kolkata reached the final, and Josemi captained them to a 1-0 win over Kerala Blasters. A European Cup and an Indian title: not a bad pair of medals for one career.
Injury cut short his second season in India. He retired from playing the following year, in 2016, and later returned to Málaga as the club’s match delegate.
Once a Red
Josemi was never going to be remembered as one of Liverpool’s great full-backs. He lost his place early and never really won it back.
But he was Rafa’s first signing, he was on the field for Gerrard’s goal against Olympiacos, and he was part of the squad that won the European Cup in Istanbul. Not many players who made 35 appearances can say as much.
He turns 47 on Sunday. Once a Red, always a Red.
