On the last day of last season, 24 May 2026, Liverpool drew 1-1 with Brentford and Anfield said goodbye to Mohamed Salah and Andy Robertson. Both had signed in the summer of 2017. If the person you're buying for started going some time since then, that was their Liverpool, and it's just finished.
Their dad's Liverpool probably ended somewhere else. Keegan going to Hamburg, maybe, or Gerrard's last game. Work out which side they grew up on before you spend anything.
Which final?
Rome 77, Paris or Rome 84 means Clemence and Dalglish and Alan Kennedy's penalty. Istanbul means Gerrard, and coming back from 3-0 down at half time against Milan. If they go misty about Madrid in 2019, you're buying for the Klopp lot, and you probably know that already.
Some won't have a final at all. Arne Slot won the league in his first season, 2024-25, and for a lot of kids that's the first title they can remember.
Whichever it is, the present I'd actually buy is a programme from their first game. Get the date off a parent if you can't ask without giving the game away. Then search eBay by the date and the opponent, not just "Liverpool programme", because sellers list them in all sorts of ways. Programme dealers sell through their own websites too, so search for those if eBay comes up empty. Ask for photos of the actual copy before you pay, since condition varies a lot.
The European Cup lot
Shankly: My Story is Bill Shankly in his own words, from taking over a Second Division club in 1959 to building the side the 70s winners came out of.
For something from the final itself, a Rome 77 programme is the one. Only buy from a seller who photographs the actual item, because there are plenty of reprints about.
Anyone who stood on the Kop before it went all-seater in 1994 has a view in their head that doesn't exist any more. A photo taken from roughly where they used to stand will mean more to them than any shot of the ground from above.
Brian Reade's 43 Years with the Same Bird is a supporter writing about being one, and it's more about the days out than the tactics.
Then there's You'll Never Walk Alone on vinyl. Gerry and the Pacemakers released it in 1963 and the Kop has sung it ever since. Second-hand copies don't cost much, and the sleeve framed on its own sits nicely in a hallway.
The Istanbul lot
Steven Gerrard's My Story came out in 2015, the year he left for LA Galaxy, so it covers his whole Liverpool career. Istanbul crowd only, really.
If you're buying one retro shirt, make it the red Reebok with Carlsberg across the front. It's what Gerrard was wearing when he lifted the cup in Istanbul, and anyone who was a teenager that May will want it more than anything the club has sold since.
A scarf from the night works too, with the same rule as the programmes. Signed Gerrard shirts are everywhere, so only buy one with a certificate and a seller you can trace.
Madrid 2019 and the Slot title
For this lot I'd book the Anfield stadium tour: dressing room, tunnel, the This Is Anfield sign and the museum. Pick a quiet weekday, as parts of it shut around match days.
The 2019 Champions League final against Tottenham in Madrid finished 2-0, Salah from the spot inside two minutes and Origi late on. Salah and Robertson both started, so this year it's the obvious side to frame.
Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson; Henderson, Fabinho, Wijnaldum; Salah, Firmino, Mané.
All eleven were still at the club when the league title came the season after.
For the 2024-25 title, the usual side looked something like Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Konaté, Van Dijk, Robertson; Gravenberch, Mac Allister, Szoboszlai; Salah, Díaz, Gakpo. Diogo Jota was part of that squad. He died in July 2025, aged 28.
My all-time XI
Goal is the first fight. Alisson is probably the better keeper, and he once headed a winner at West Brom. But Clemence won three European Cups, in 1977, 1978 and 1981, and kept the shirt for the best part of a decade. I'm going Clemence, narrowly.
Right back is worse. Phil Neal played in all four European Cup finals and scored a penalty in the first one, in Rome. On medals he walks it. I'd still take Trent Alexander-Arnold, and I know how that sounds after he left for Real Madrid in 2025. Watch the corner against Barcelona in May 2019 again, taken while their players were still wandering about. Origi scored.
Alan Hansen and Virgil van Dijk in the middle, and I won't hear otherwise.
Robertson came from Hull for not very much in 2017 and left this summer with two league titles behind him.
Gerrard's header in Istanbul, the one that made it 3-1 and made everyone believe, would get him in on its own. Then he went and scored twice in the 2006 FA Cup final, the second from miles out in stoppage time. Next to him, Souness, who lifted the European Cup as captain in Rome in 1984. And John Barnes on the left, Footballer of the Year in 1988 and again in 1990, which people under 40 tend to forget.
Rush is the club's record scorer.
Salah's first season is the one I'd pick to remember him by. He scored 32 league goals in 2017-18, a record for a 38-game season at the time, and most weeks it felt like he'd get one whatever happened. That's also why Suárez misses out, and it hurts. He scored 31 in 2013-14 and Liverpool still didn't win the league. But he was here three and a half years. Salah was here nine.
Dalglish over Keegan is the easy call, for me anyway. Keegan was brilliant for six seasons and then went to Hamburg. Dalglish came from Celtic to replace him in 1977, scored the winner in the European Cup final at Wembley a few months later, won more and stayed.
On the bench, Jamie Carragher, who played through cramp in Istanbul and is second only to Ian Callaghan for appearances, and Robbie Fowler for the hat-trick against Arsenal in under five minutes in 1994.
Billy Liddell is the one I'm least sure about leaving out. Anyone who saw him play in the 50s would probably have him ahead of Barnes, and they might be right.
An 80s side
This one squeezes a whole decade into one team. Souness left in 1984 and Barnes didn't arrive until 1987, so they never actually shared a pitch.
Grobbelaar; Neal, Lawrenson, Hansen, Alan Kennedy; Whelan, Souness, McMahon, Barnes; Dalglish, Rush. Beardsley first off the bench.
Kennedy is there for two kicks: the winner in Paris in 1981, and the last penalty of the shoot-out in Rome three years later.
If you'd rather they had their own side on the wall, the YourXI builder lets you put together any Liverpool players from any era, a Mo and Robbo farewell team, or their Sunday league lot in red, with whatever title and message you like. We email you a proof before anything is printed, so leave a bit of time before birthdays and Christmas. It's £149 for 12x16 in or £199 for 18x24 in, in a black or white frame, with free UK delivery. There are ready-made classic sides in our Liverpool prints too, from £69.