/sportsinfo/media/member_avatars/image 59.png)
Follow Us/sportsinfo/media/media_files/9oWCBDsbOqC3PPQGEMqQ.jpg)
One of the best midfielders to have ever featured in the English Premier League is Steven Gerrard. He got a two-year contract extension as manager earlier this year and is currently the manager of Al-Ettifaq in the Saudi Pro League. After his 18-year playing career that ended with retirement in 2016, Gerrard signed a two-year contract to play for Al-Ettifaq last summer.
Gerrard completed 504 games during his playing career, tallying 121 goals and dishing out 97 assists. The midfielder was one of the past players elected in the English Premier League Hall of Fame in 2021, despite having not won a league title with Liverpool in 17 years.
After less than a year and a successful tenure as manager of the Scottish team Rangers, he was let go from Aston Villa in October 2022. Now recently, he has given a statement which might hurt the Premier League and it’s clubs.
The former Liverpool legend said, "Rangers are a bigger club than most Premier League teams. I think that Rangers would finish 6th in the Premier League."
Steven Gerrard’s new academy set to start in 2025
At the location of an upcoming sports pavilion that will house an academy headed by former Liverpool and England player Steven Gerrard, demolition work has begun. Opening in 2025, the £7.5 million facility at Stapleford, Nottinghamshire's Hickings Lane Recreation Ground will house youth training facilities and classrooms.
Two 3G fields and a grass field for public use will be included. The existing changing rooms, which date back to the 1980s, are being dismantled. The 57-week project is anticipated to be finished by the autumn of next year.
The head of the council, Milan Radulovich, hinted that the academy might produce the next Steven Gerrard. He said, “We’d love to see local people progress to an international career through sport, and I hope they find their foundations at the academy. People will get whole range of community options, encouraging them to live a healthier, cleaner and energetic lifestyle."