Liverpool Farewell Day: 12 Players Depart Anfield
At Anfield, June 30 is more than a date on a contract. It is a line in the sand. Today, Liverpool and a dozen of their players step across it in different directions.
Across the game, this is the day deals either roll on or fall away. On Merseyside, it arrives at a moment of deliberate upheaval. A new head coach, Andoni Iraola, is reshaping the first team while the club also turns the page on a generation of Academy hopefuls. The squad that reports back will not look quite like the one that walked off in May.
The rebuild has already started. Spain winger Victor Munoz became Iraola’s first signing earlier this month when Liverpool triggered the £34.5million release clause in his Osasuna contract. Jeremy Jacquet, the highly rated centre-back from Rennes, will follow after a £60m agreement struck in January finally comes into effect.
Robertson and Konate headline exits
The most striking goodbyes come from the senior dressing room. Andy Robertson and Ibrahima Konate, two pillars of Liverpool’s recent era, will officially leave when their contracts expire, then reappear in rival colours.
Robertson is set to join Tottenham Hotspur, a move that underlines both his enduring value in the Premier League and the scale of change at Liverpool’s back line. Konate, meanwhile, is heading for Real Madrid, the kind of transfer that usually happens to Liverpool, not from them. Both moves become official on Wednesday, but today is their last day on the club’s books.
Mohamed Salah’s situation carries a different kind of weight. The 34-year-old forward, one of the defining figures of Liverpool’s modern history, is also leaving, yet his next step remains on hold. He will park any decision on his future until after Egypt’s World Cup campaign. Al-Hilal of the Saudi Pro League are believed to be pushing hard, and the money on offer there will test any attachment to Europe’s elite stage.
Rhys Williams moves on
For Rhys Williams, today closes a chapter that once looked like it might define his career. Thrown into the spotlight during the injury-ravaged 2020/21 season, the centre-back made 19 appearances and helped steady a listing defence. He has not featured for the first team since.
Now he goes in search of a fresh start. Williams has already been on trial with MLS side New York Red Bulls, a sign that his next act is likely to be written on the other side of the Atlantic.
Academy clear-out signals new cycle
Below the first team, the Academy also turns over. The names are less familiar, but the decisions are no less significant inside Kirkby’s walls.
- Defenders Josh Davidson, Terence Miles and Emmanuel Airoboma are all leaving on free transfers.
- So too are goalkeepers DJ Bernard and Jacob Poytress.
- Midfielder James Balagizi, who edged close enough to the spotlight to make the senior bench twice in the 2021/22 season, departs as well, another young talent whose pathway has narrowed in a crowded squad.
Up front, there is change too. Striker Kareem Ahmed moves on, while Oakley Cannonier’s exit carries a particular echo of a famous night.
Cannonier never became a first-team regular, but his name is etched into Liverpool folklore for a moment of sharp thinking rather than a goal. As an Academy ball boy in 2019, he fired the ball back to Trent Alexander-Arnold for that quickly taken corner, the one Divock Origi buried to complete the astonishing Champions League comeback against Barcelona at Anfield. From that flash of awareness came a legend; from today, Cannonier must try to build a career of his own.
A new era for Iraola
By the time pre-season settles into its rhythm, Iraola will be working with a group very much in his image: Munoz on the flank, Jacquet in the heart of defence, space cleared for more additions and for new Academy graduates to step up.
The farewells are formal today, signed off in paperwork and press releases. The real judgement comes later. Will this be remembered as the day Liverpool quietly closed one chapter, or the moment a very different team began to take shape?
