Sean Dundee arrived at Anfield in the summer of 1998 with a big reputation as a Bundesliga goalscorer.
A little over a year later he was gone, after five appearances, all of them from the bench, and not a single goal.
His name has since become shorthand for Liverpool signings that didn’t work out. That’s a bit harsh on a man who once matched Jürgen Klinsmann’s goal tally in Germany.
There is a good deal more to Dundee than a punchline. And when it comes to what went wrong at Liverpool, he has been more honest than most.
From Durban to Germany
Sean William Dundee was born in Durban on 7 December 1972. As a boy he supported Everton, of all clubs, and dreamed of playing in England.
Germany came first. In 1992 he joined Stuttgarter Kickers, then in the second division, where his roommate was a young Thomas Tuchel.
Games were hard to come by, so he dropped down a level to TSF Ditzingen. There the goals started to flow, and in 1995 Karlsruher SC took him into the Bundesliga.
Level with Klinsmann
His first Bundesliga season was a revelation. Dundee scored 16 league goals in 1995-96, one behind the top scorer, Fredi Bobic, and level with Klinsmann and Giovane Élber.
That May he started the German Cup final in Berlin, in a Karlsruhe side that included the 1990 World Cup winner Thomas Hässler. Kaiserslautern won it 1-0.
He added 17 more league goals the following season. Inevitably, he was nicknamed after Crocodile Dundee.
There was even a computer game with his name on the box, Sean Dundee’s World Club Football, released by Ubisoft in 1997.
South Africa or Germany?
Goals like that brought international interest from two countries. In December 1995 he was in the South Africa squad to face Germany, but he didn’t play.
A few weeks later South Africa won the Africa Cup of Nations on home soil without him.
Berti Vogts wanted him for Germany, and Dundee was fast-tracked to German citizenship.
It never quite happened. A calf injury picked up the weekend before what should have been his debut ruled him out, and he never won a full cap. His only game for Germany came at B level, in 2000.
Liverpool come calling
Dundee’s goals dried up in 1997-98, and Karlsruhe were relegated. He was weighing up offers from Rangers, Borussia Mönchengladbach and Auxerre when Liverpool came in.
By his own account, the moment Anfield called, every other option went out of the window.
Roy Evans needed cover up front, with Robbie Fowler expected to be sidelined until Christmas with a knee injury. The deal was done on 5 June 1998, for around £2m.
A difficult start
By the start of the season, Liverpool had two managers, with Gérard Houllier appointed alongside Evans.
Dundee has never hidden from what happened next. He has admitted he wasn’t fit enough when he arrived, and that he never shook off that first impression.
With Michael Owen and Karl-Heinz Riedle ahead of him, and Fowler soon back, Dundee had to wait until late October for his debut. He came on for Owen with seven minutes left of a 3-1 League Cup win over Fulham at Anfield.
Kevin Keegan was in the Fulham dugout that night, and Peter Beardsley came off their bench.
The night in Valencia
A week later came the night of his Liverpool career, at the Mestalla on 3 November 1998.
The first leg of the UEFA Cup second-round tie had finished goalless at Anfield. Claudio López put Claudio Ranieri’s Valencia ahead on the stroke of half-time, and Liverpool were heading out.
Late on, with Liverpool still a goal down, Dundee came on for Vegard Heggem.
Within minutes the tie had turned. Steve McManaman headed in Owen’s cross with nine minutes to go, and Patrik Berger made it 2-1 five minutes later.
A David James own goal right at the end made it 2-2, but Liverpool went through on away goals, on a wild night that finished with McManaman, Paul Ince and Valencia’s Amedeo Carboni all sent off.
Dundee didn’t score or make a goal. But he was out there for one of Liverpool’s great European escapes.
Injury, and a new manager
Soon afterwards he injured his knee. While he was out, everything changed.
On 12 November 1998, Evans left Liverpool and Houllier took sole charge. Dundee has said that when Evans went, his time at the club was effectively over.
He did get back on the pitch in April 1999. His Premier League debut came against Aston Villa at Anfield on 17 April, four minutes from time, and four days later he had more than 20 minutes against Leicester. Both games were lost 1-0.
His last appearance came at Ewood Park on 24 April, when he replaced Riedle for the final ten minutes of a 3-1 win over Blackburn.
Five substitute appearances, and less than an hour on the pitch in all.
Training on his own
By the summer of 1999, Dundee and Paul Ince had been left training on their own while the rest of the squad went away.
“I feel very harshly treated,” he said when he left that summer.
He went back to Germany with VfB Stuttgart, where Ralf Rangnick had just taken over.
Back in Germany
He spent four years at Stuttgart, scoring 25 league goals in 77 games, and was still there when they finished runners-up in the Bundesliga in 2003.
Then came Austria Wien, a second spell at Karlsruhe, Kickers Offenbach and a loan back at Stuttgarter Kickers. In 2008 he went home to Durban to play for AmaZulu, and his professional career ended the following year.
Not that he could stay away. Years later he was turning out in the amateur leagues around Karlsruhe for VSV Büchig.
Honest about it all
These days Dundee is a familiar voice to Bundesliga viewers around the world, working as a co-commentator on the league’s international TV feed since 2017, and he has coached young players too.
What stands out when he talks about Liverpool is how little he blames anyone else. He has said he should have worked harder and that he didn’t make the most of his talent.
He has never stopped caring about the club, either.
“I would have loved to score a goal at Anfield,” he said in a 2018 interview. “I wish the supporters had got to know me better and I could show them I was better than what they saw.”
“I don’t really laugh about it. A lot of people think it was a joke, but I still support them.”
Once a Red
Sean Dundee’s Liverpool career amounts to five appearances from the bench and less than an hour of football. Nobody would pretend it worked.
But for a couple of seasons in Germany he was as dangerous as almost anyone, and on an unforgettable night in Valencia he was on the pitch when Liverpool pulled off a famous escape.
And after all these years, he still says Liverpool have the best supporters. Once a Red, always a Red.
