-Credit: (Image: 2005 Getty Images)
In the 1990s, few players had a hair and beard combination as distinctive as Milan Barros. This Czech sometimes matched his long hair with a clean-shaven face, and sometimes wore a soul patch, a small tuft of beard beneath his lower lip.
However, the former Aston Villa striker has transformed himself in recent years and now sports a short haircut on the back and sides and a full beard. Most die-hard Liverpool fans will probably still recognize Barros, but younger fans could be forgiven for not recognizing the 42-year-old.
Baros joined Liverpool from Czech side Banik Ostrava in 2001 and spent four years at Anfield. However, his scoring record was largely disappointing as he scored just 27 goals in 108 appearances in all competitions.
However, he played in the 2005 Champions League final in Istanbul, where Rafa Benítez’s side managed to overturn a 3-0 deficit, with a stacked AC that featured the likes of Paolo Maldini, Alessandro Nesta and Jaap Stam. He was part of the legendary Liverpool team that defeated Milan and won the championship. , Cafu, Andrea Pirlo, Kaka, Clarence Seedorf, Andriy Shevchenko.
Baros is completely different from his playing days – Credit: Instagram/Milan Baros
Barros and Djibril Cissé were substituted in the 85th minute, and Liverpool won the final on penalties. And the former Liverpool star was also involved in the famous ‘ghost goal’ that saw the Reds win 1-0 on aggregate against Chelsea in the semi-finals at Anfield.
It was Baros who ran out behind the Chelsea defence, latched on to the ball from Steven Gerrard and found himself one-on-one with Petr Cech. Barros was unable to get the ball past Cech into the net, but teammate Luis Garcia grabbed the ball and gave Liverpool a ‘score’.
Of course, we now know that the ball didn’t cross the line, but that didn’t matter to Garcia, Barros and the Liverpool supporters that night who had booked their place in the final in Istanbul. .
Barros also played for Aston Villa and Portsmouth in England, and continued to play for more than a decade after leaving the Premier League, returning to Banik Ostrava in 2020 to finish his career.
