When Gerard Houllier bought Sami Hyypia from Willen II in the summer of '99, many people said that he should buy better known players. They expected very little from unknown Finnish International, Hyypia. Sami, turned out to be the missing ingridient in the Red's defence. He helped Liverpool to the best defence in the premiership in just his 1st season at the club.
Sami started his career with Finnish side, MyPa Anjalankoski and also won the Finnish title with them in 1992.Three years later, he moved to Dutch side Willen II.
Gerard Houllier came aware of Hyypia's talent almost by mistake. The Liverpool representatives were in Germany looking for home-grown talent in the International against Finland. Instead, there were impressed by the Finnish centre-half Hyypia, who marked Oliver Beehorf out of the game. Liverpool kept their eyes on him and in the summer of '99 after he had helped Willen II to 2nd in the Dutch league which was automatic qualification for the Champions league, Liverpool signed him for just 3million pounds.
Sami is a quiet player and doesn't like too much attention. He is tall, strong in the air, strong on the ground and comfortable on the ball. He is also dangerous when going up for free-kicks and corners. Sami impressed Houllier so much, that he was made captain in the absence of Redknapp and Fowler.
A regular with the Finnish National team, Hyypia's understanding with Swiss International, Henchoz is the key to Liverpool's strong defencive display in the last two seasons. Hyppia's continuse to impress us day by day with his outstanding defencive displays, let's hope he keeps it up. |
