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The 35-year-old started his career with his boyhood club, Swansea City, and helped them win two promotions as the South Wales outfit worked their way up from League One to the Premier League.

After his first season in the English top-flight with the Swans, he followed manager Brendan Rodgers to Anfield in the summer of 2012 in a £15m deal.

He was – I knew his methods well and he was signing a player who he knew really well, so that definitely was a big help, a big draw of course.



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“He’d done an incredible job in taking us (Swansea City) up, and then in that first season in the Premier League, some of the football we played and how well we did was… huge credit has to go to him.

“The combo of joining, like I said, a huge club like Liverpool and also a manager who knows me and who I had worked with before was an opportunity I found too good to turn down.

“It was a great summer and to get that opportunity to join one of the world’s biggest clubs was fantastic.”

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If only we could have got the couple more points we needed over the season, it could have been a lot different.”

While Liverpool did not win the title during Allen’s time at the club, by finishing second they did qualify for the Champions League for the first time since 2009.

And the Welshman admits it was a dream come true to play in Europe’s elite competition, though conceded he was disappointed not to feature more prominently in the Champions League during his Liverpool career.

"The Champions League, that was incredible.

“Unfortunately, I didn’t get as many… You know, when you join a club like Liverpool, I would have hoped to have played in a lot more.

“We didn’t get out of the group-stages unfortunately that season, so it was a bit of a disappointment from that point of view.

“So, to have played those games, to have played Real Madrid home and away, from where I’d come from, it was hard to believe, but yeah, I loved it.”

Allen left Liverpool for Stoke City in a £13m deal in the summer of 2016, with his last appearance for Reds coming in their Europa League final defeat to Sevilla.

He’d later return to his beloved Swansea on a free transfer in July 2022, and made 78 appearances, scoring four goals, during his second stint at the Liberty Stadium.

Announcing his retirement from football last week, the 35-year-old went on to make his final ever appearance in a 3-3 draw with Oxford City last weekend on the last day of the Championship season.

And Allen admitted that he found it fitting that his career had come ‘full circle’ by finishing off back at his boyhood club.

“I am fortunate to be in a position where I am back at the club I love, and to have had the chance to come home for the last three seasons,” he said when announcing his retirement.

“To be announcing my retirement as a Swansea City player makes it extra special, I have been very fortunate.

I am so proud and so glad to have had all the experiences I have had over my career.

“The (highlights) that spring straight to mind are winning the play-off final to get promoted to the Premier League, and then that first season in the Premier League and some of the victories we had at home - they were incredible moments.

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“And then the chance to play for Liverpool – such an historic club – and be playing alongside some of the greats and fighting for the title there.

“I had some really good years at Stoke, but the summer in France with Wales and qualifying for the World Cup are more memories and experiences where I find myself pinching myself.

“I would never have thought they were possible.”


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