When Billy Liddell was retiring he was asked if Liverpool had in their ranks a worthy successor. Liddell didn’t harbour any doubts: “There is a 17-year-old called Ian Callaghan who looks like taking over from me. I played with him twice, watched his progress and I believe he’ll be a credit to his club, the game and his country,” he stated at the time. Callaghan played his first game only six days after his eighteenth birthday replacing his boyhood hero Liddell. Liverpool beat Bristol Rovers 4-0 but Callaghan’s performance captured the imagination. When the final whistle went 27,000 spectators gave him a standing ovation along with both sets of players as well as the referee! The headline in the Daily Post read: “A Callaghan debut to remember.” In the Daily Express Graham Fisher wrote: “For Liverpool right-winger Ian Callaghan, a veteran of four Central League games, he just ended the most accomplished League debut I’ve had the pleasure to witness.”

Shankly did not though want to rely on such a young man so soon and bought Kevin Lewis before the start of the 1960/61 season. Lewis scored 22 goals in 36 games and Callaghan had to bide his time. Liverpool got promoted in 1961/62 and from November that season he was finally a regular and stayed that way for the next 15 years! During the first part of his career, Callaghan played on the right wing with Peter Thompson on the left. They were a dangerous duo and created a number of goals for Roger Hunt and Ian St John. Callaghan only stood 5 ft. 7 in. (170 cm.), but he was blessed with great speed. “I used to take the full-back on and get to the byline. That was my strength.” When Dixie Dean was asked if he could have repeated his record of scoring 60 League goals in one season in modern football he answered: “If I could play between Ian Callaghan and Peter Thompson I’d still get my 60 goals a season.” 

No one can forget when Callaghan created St John’s winning goal in the FA Cup final 1965. The game stood at 1-1 in extra-time after goals from Roger Hunt and Billy Bremner. Callaghan crossed from the right and St John headed into the net. Liverpool’s first FA Cup trophy win is Callaghan’s favourite memory: “First has to be Wembley ‘65 and Liverpool lifting the FA Cup for the first time. It was also my first appearance at the stadium and I had a hand, or rather a foot, in the winning goal.” This historic FA Cup win came between two Championships in 1964 and 1966. This was the golden age of Bill Shankly’s 60’s side. “Ian Callaghan is everything good that a man can be. No praise is too high for him,” Shankly said. “He is a model professional, and a model human being. If there were 11 Callaghans at Anfield there would never be any need to put up a team sheet. You could stake your life on Ian. Words cannot do justice to the amount he has contributed to the game. Ian Callaghan will go down as one of the game’s truly great players.” 

In the 1970/71 season, Callaghan underwent a knee operation and Brian Hall took his place on the right wing. When Callaghan returned Shankly moved him to the centre of midfield prolonging his Liverpool career by seven years. Callaghan’s great reading of the game and incredible work rate made him ideal for this position. Callaghan set a new record of appearances for Liverpool on 15 August 1972 breaking Billy Liddell’s long-standing club record of 534. Three championship medals; in 1973, 1976 and 1977, followed. Callaghan played in four FA Cup finals, winning in 1965 and 1974, but finished on the losing side in 1971 and 1977. He won the UEFA Cup twice; in 1973 and 1976. In 1977 Liverpool won the European Cup for the first time after beating Borussia Mönchengladbach 3-1 in Rome and celebrated their second European win in 1978. Callaghan had lost his place to Graeme Souness but he was on the bench in the Wembley final. That was to be the last time his name appeared on Liverpool’s team sheet. He had gone through the whole of his Liverpool career without being sent off or even booked when the referee took his name down in Callaghan’s penultimate game for Liverpool in March 1978. In September 1978, after 19 seasons with Liverpool, Callaghan called it a day at the club having enjoyed the summer in the States on loan at Fort Lauderdale. On his return, Callaghan signed for John Toshack’s Swansea where he played with Tommy Smith. In 1981 Callaghan was going to retire following a short spell in Ireland but was persuaded by his old mate, Alan A’ Court, who was assistant manager at Crewe, to share his experience in the game. Callaghan stayed five months there before he did his Achilles tendon and retired two months short of his fortieth birthday.

Ian Callaghan boasts without a doubt one of the most remarkable careers of any player in Europe past or present. He was the epitome of the professional footballer and is a gentleman off the field. He is the club’s record appearance holder with 857 games and was the first Liverpool player to be voted Footballer of the Year, in 1974. Strangely enough, he only played four times for his country. He was part of the World Cup-winning team in 1966, playing one game, but incredibly 11 years passed from his second to his third cap. On 10 June 2009, Ian Callaghan was finally presented with a World Cup winners’ medal at a special ceremony in London nearly 43 years after the event. When Liverpool won the European Cup for the first time in 1977 Callaghan was the only player who had also played Liverpool’s first European game in 1964. Charles Lambert, an Echo reporter, gave Callaghan this praise. “As great a Liverpool institution as the Mersey Ferries.” All things considered, it is highly unlikely that Ian Callaghan’s record of games played for Liverpool will ever be broken.