Hayden Meikle
ODT sports editor
LIVERPOOL
Fan since: About 1986
Favourite player: Steve McManaman
Greatest moment: Coming from 3-0 down to win the 2005 Champions League final against A C Milan in Istanbul.
Been to Anfield?: No.
They say that you don't choose which sports teams to support; they choose you.
With the exception of the North Otago rugby team - I grew up on a farm just outside Oamaru - my list of favourites includes a grab-bag of teams that have attracted my loyalty for a variety of reasons.
In baseball, it's the Boston Red Sox because I read a lot of Stephen King (he's a very big fan) when I was younger.
In rugby league, it's the Penrith Panthers because of Royce Simmons' two tries in the 1991 grand final. And in basketball, it's the hapless New York Knicks because of the video game NBA Jam.
Liverpool was the first sports team to capture my heart. And your first is always the best.
Rugby left me cold when I was a kid - still does, at some levels, if I'm honest.
I became a passionate English football fan, as many of us did, through getting Shoot magazine and watching Match of the Day.
Liverpool, of course, was the best team in the world in the 1980s. Did I jump on the bandwagon? Possibly. I was just 8, or thereabouts, though.
And I didn't jump ship about, oh, 1993 when Liverpool started to slide and the Manchester United dynasty arose.
Fairweather fans. I loathe them.
Yes, it's easier to stick with a team like Liverpool, which is always going to be closer to the top of the table than the bottom, than with a team like Sunderland.
But I'm proud of the loyalty I've shown Liverpool.
I love the history of the club: the 18 titles, the glorious record in Europe, the tales of Shankly and Paisley and Hunt and Hansen and Dalglish, singing You'll Never Walk Alone at Anfield, the Merseyside derby.
In my early years as a fan, John Barnes and Ian Rush were the big stars. Then came the era of the incisively brilliant Robbie Fowler, followed by the box-to-box king Steven Gerrard, and now the gifted Fernando "El Nino" Torres.
But my special hero was, and will remain, Steve McManaman, the boy from Bootle.
His flowing ginger locks, pasty-white skin and gangly legs put off a lot of people, including a succession of England managers who didn't recognise his gifts, but not me.
Stevie Mac was thrilling in full flight. I've always been drawn to athletes who are a mix of talent and flaws, and he was a shining example.
I was in Scotland last year for the Rugby World Cup, and I'm still kicking myself that I didn't take a day off to go down to Anfield.
This season, I'm daring to dream. Again.
Everyone knows Liverpool has won bundles of trophies but hasn't been able to win the league since 1990.
That's a long drought by my great club's standards.
With the best striker, the best central midfielder and the best central defender in the Premier League, there's no reason we shouldn't be celebrating in May.
