As the ball trickled towards the line at Anfield, João Teixeira held one arm aloft thinking he had scored the first winning goal of the Jürgen Klopp era at Liverpool. Unfortunately, Bournemouth’s Adam Smith cleared the ball at the last second, only to see Nathaniel Clyne tap home and write his name in the history books instead.
For Teixeira, whose Vitória de Guimarães team travel to Arsenal in the Europa League on Thursday, it was still his best moment in a Liverpool shirt and he immediately perks up as he paints the picture once again in his own mind. It summed him up as a player – a clever run in behind the defence to receive a Roberto Firmino pass, before backheeling the ball beyond the goalkeeper with an incredible feat of ingenuity and skill, only to see it reward someone else.
Teixeira arrived at Liverpool after impressing for Sporting Lisbon in a NextGen Series game against the Reds watched by Steven Gerrard, who described the teenager as “the best on the pitch”. There were already signs of Gerrard’s man-management on show. “He was the kind of person who always tells you something that you should do in training to improve but he never shouts, he always comes close to you and tells you should have done this or that,” Teixeira explains from Vitoria’s training ground. “He never shows that he is helping you but he is always helping you and he always trained at 100%. He was a great player, a great captain and will always be a legend.”
Those lessons helped Teixeira to improve to the extent that he was called up to the first-team squad as they battled for the 2013-14 title under Brendan Rodgers. With the scores level against Fulham, the Northern Irishman turned to Teixeira. “It was my first game as a professional player, I remember Raheem Sterling came off and I went on. It was an amazing atmosphere, night time on a weekday and we won 3-2 with a penalty from Gerrard in the last minute, so it was really nice.”
For his part in the buildup to Daniel Sturridge being felled in the area, Teixeira was praised by his captain and manager. “That moment, when I look back, I am very proud of what I did in the game in just 10 minutes. We won but it wasn’t enough to win the Premier League but it was my first game as a professional and it was a fantastic moment.”
Teixeira, now 26, would go on to play only once more in the Premier League, two years later when he was afforded three minutes in a defeat to Leicester. Teixeira spent a season at Brighton in between those two appearances. He proved himself in the Championship with 36 appearances and five goals, which saw the midfielder collect the club’s Young Player of the Year award but disaster struck against Huddersfield. “The season was very good for me, but I broke my leg four games before the end of the season. It was not very nice; I had to stop, have surgery, they put some screws and a plate in my leg and I needed rehab to recover during the holidays.
“The plan was to go back to Liverpool, maybe have a few chances but maybe it wasn’t the right time to go back and I should have stayed another year at Brighton. I think I could have had more chances but that is not my choice, it is always the manager who decides if I do or do not get more chances, so that’s up to him.”
Opportunities came fleetingly in cup competitions under Klopp but it was not enough for Teixeira and he returned to his homeland to join Porto. There were only eight appearances, however, before spells at hometown club Braga and now 25km away in Guimarães, whom he helped qualify for the Europa League. “At the time getting games was the main thing but I’d been in England for four and a half years and I had the chance to get back to Portugal with a big club like Porto, so I made my decision. At the time it was an option to stay at Liverpool. I didn’t know if I’d stay in the first team or go on loan, though.”
Teixeira now gets to play the Gerrard role in training, helping to integrate the summer signing Marcus Edwards, who joined from Spurs. The forward is in a similar position to Teixeira when he joined Liverpool, being a young player in a foreign country.
“He is a very young talent, a very good player, a nice guy. To be honest, I thought when an Englishman leaves the country they find it very hard to adapt but he has already adapted to Portugal; he likes the team and he is learning Portuguese and is always trying to speak it, just a few words but we appreciate it. He is such a talented guy and has everything he needs to show his talents in Vitória.”
The next chance to show those talents will be in the Europa League against Arsenal on Thursday. Vitória went through three qualifying rounds to reach the group stage, so they will enjoy the reward of two games against the Gunners. “It’s very exciting for the club as we’re going to play on the big stage in England against Arsenal in an amazing stadium, so it’s going to be a good night.”
