Graeme Souness

About

Graeme is a former Scottish professional football player, a successful manager, and a well known commentator for Sky Sports.

He was the captain of the successful Liverpool team of the early 1980s and player-manager of Rangers in the late 1980s as well as captain of the Scottish national team. He also played for Tottenham Hotspur, Middlesbrough and Sampdoria in a long career.

Graeme Souness’s playing career is best remembered for his seven seasons at Liverpool, where he won five League Championships, three European Cups and four League Cups.

In 1983–84, Souness lifted three trophies as Liverpool again retained the League title and League Cup, with Souness scoring the winning goal in the replayed final of the latter against rivals Everton – the first all-Merseyside cup final.

Graeme Souness left Liverpool in 1984, joining Sampdoria for a fee of £650,000 – In his first season, Sampdoria won the Coppa Italia with a 3–1 victory over Serie A rivals AC Milan, securing the trophy for the first time in the club’s history.

Souness was appointed Rangers’ first player-manager in April 1986. He revitalised the team quickly began to dominate Scottish football. In his first season, 1986–87 they won the Championship and the League Cup, beating Celtic 2–1 in the final. Two more Championships were to follow, this time in successive seasons (1988–89 and 1989–90).

Graeme used to regularly appear as a television commentator in Ireland. He primarily featured on RTÉ’s live coverage of the Champions League and on their highlights show Premier Soccer Saturday, covering the English Premier League. He also works with Sky Sports as a pundit, principally on coverage of the Champions League.

In 1985, Souness wrote an autobiography called No Half Measures. In 1999 he wrote another book chronicling his post-playing career up to and including his spell at Southampton, entitled Souness: The Management Years.

In 1998 Souness was included in the Football League 100 Legends list.

A poll of 110,000 Liverpool supporters that was shown on television and was called 100 Players Who Shook The Kop, saw Souness placed the ninth most popular player in the club’s history.

Souness was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame in 2007 in recognition of his contribution to the game.

Graeme’s face is still a familiar addition to the sports world and his powerful motivational speeches are in demand at company seminars nationwide.