July 2007. Liverpool find themselves a club reflecting on a recent agonising Champions League final defeat to Milan, but also a club on the cusp of a miniature transition.
Out go the jumbled likes of Mohamed Sissoko, Boudewijn Zenden, and Craig Bellamy. So to, do some more cult-appreciated figures like Luis Garcia, Jerzy Dudek and a now-seasoned Robbie Fowler. There's fringe players heading for the door too, but they're obscure enough in some places to warrant their own Where Are They Now? piece in their own right.
Rafa Benitez has continued to really implement his style on the club and has undoubtedly sparked excited chatter on the concourse of the Kop with the arrival of Fernando Torres. The exciting Atleti striker bounds in for £26.5m, with youthful, long-locked Lucas Leiva following from Gremio.
Before a solid-enough era of Liverpool moves is capped by Martin Skrtel's intimidating arrival from Zenit St. Petersburg in January of '08 (those three amassed a combined 591 PL appearances), in strides a slick-looking winger from Ajax – unveiled alongside Israeli workhorse Yossi Benayoun.
The Dutchman's hype and potential has fizzed through the Merseyside air before he's even off the plane. The Dutch just won't shut up about him. They hail him the future of their game. Marco van Basten's even called him the next Thierry Henry, look. This can only end well.
Let's talk about Ryan Babel.
Why did Liverpool sign Ryan Babel?
A 20-year-old Ryan Babel joined Rafa's Reds after a mixed 2006-07 term with his boyhood club Ajax. Although the Amsterdam club didn't get their hands on the Eredivisie title, he directly helped the team secure a Johan Cruyff shield (community shield equivalent) as well as the KNVB Beker (league cup).
Babel had shown skill beyond his years and was especially elevated on the international scene. Performances at the U21 European Championships effectively forced Liverpool to sign him up. Babel starred as a forward in a man-of-the-match 4-1 final outing against Serbia and as said, led Marco van Basten to declare: "He has the potential to be the next Thierry Henry."
As Liverpool captured his signature, Steven Gerrard provided further comment – excitedly believing that the youngster's move was part of a wider Torres-driven title charge.
"Some of the other players we're being linked with excite me too. It's great to see us looking at young, hungry players with their best years ahead of them. Since I've been in the first team I can't remember us making such a major statement of intent in the transfer market as this." (Steven Gerrard, 2007)
How much did Liverpool pay for Ryan Babel?
A season prior to this Merseyside move, rumoured transfers to Arsenal and Newcastle respectively failed to materialise and Liverpool eventually scored their man to the tune of £11.5m. Arriving at Anfield with eyes firmly fixed on the future, Babel penned a five-year-deal.
However, he would stay for just three of those years. A contrast to the fine potential, he cut a figure more akin to that of a misused, misguided young player. His spell was marred by alleged attitude problems and inconsistency.
Looking back, both sides (club and player) have rightfully been questioned. Did Liverpool miss a trick in Babel's fruitful three-year stay?
What went wrong for Babel at Liverpool?
Babel arrived, of course, after fine showings at U21 and Eredivisie level. Yet, the jump to Premier League football from the Netherlands seemed stranded in midair. Looking back to the Guardian's 2010 analysis, it's clear Babel found slim pickings from a stubborn Benitez. He had his favourites and it showed.
In one aspect, Babel had that archetypal inflated ego of a mid-2000s winger, it's true. But he was good enough to do that. Alas, in Benitez's eyes – he wasn't good enough to warrant starting over Harry Kewell or Albert Riera: two players the Dutchman came on for on so many occasions.
In the 2010 time of writing, 54 of 84 club appearances had been lacklustre bench arrivals either in games Liverpool were chasing or dominating. Of the 30 games he started, he was taken off in 20 of them. There was admittedly no real room to show his impact, notably when he was brought into the wing position on his weak side. As the article suggests, even when he played on his stronger right and even assisted Torres against West Ham in September 2009, he was still widely ignored.
In the same vein though, while Babel wasn't perhaps taken seriously enough as a starter – it could've been his off-field personality that caused issues to his traditional management. Babel failed to shine under three Liverpool managers as King Kenny Dalglish and Roy Hodgson both struggled to get anything out of him.
What was wrong with Babel's attitude?
Well, while his adept left and right foot found themselves wanting at times, Babel's thumbs more than made up for it as he gained a ferocious reputation as one of the Premier League's first players to use Twitter to interact with fans. In 2010, Babel Tweeted that he'd been dropped for a game against Stoke City "without explanation". A fuming Benitez subsequently fined him two weeks' wages.
After an August 2010 move south to an alleged London club fell through following rumoured helicopter trips to and fro, the winger playfully promoted the deadline day hashtag #BabelCopter. Great fun it may have been, his Twitter dalliances then came to a head again as he seemingly poked the wrong bear in 2011, this time under Dalglish.
Following some suspect decisions against Manchester United in the Dutchman's eyes, Howard Webb found himself in a crude Photoshop where the Dutchman had mocked the ref up in his very own kit. Babel was fined £10,000 by the FA for improper conduct, yet had raised his cult status with fans regardless.
This potentially made him even more difficult to manage for his, as said prior, traditional superiors. Factor in a flourishing rap career too, and it's easy to see why the likes of Benitez, Dalglish and Hodgson potentially couldn't see eye to eye with the seemingly disinterested winger.
Where is Ryan Babel now?
With what's written prior, it must be admired how true Babel was to himself as well as his interests. However, as that may have been the case, it hindered his football career. After eventually leaving Liverpool (Hodgson even tried swapping him for West Ham's Carlton Cole at one point), Babel pretty much stagnated at a level that his wasted potential screamed he was better than.
Aside from a brief reprise in 2019 with Fulham, Babel became a veritable journeyman. With the same sentiment as before, judging by his character, he no doubt had a good time – but turning out briefly for clubs like Hoffenheim (2011-12), Ajax (2012-13), Al-Ain (2015-16) and Deportiva La Coruna (2016) – it should've been beneath him.
Notice how there are years missing there? Well, similarly to Fulham's rebound of '19 – Babel seemed to flourish in Turkey where he resides now, aged 36. He has played for esteemed clubs and produced solid returns.
At Besiktas, he scored 29 in 89 (2017-19) and even won 2016/17's league. At deadly rivals Galatasaray (yeah I don't know what he was thinking either) he bagged 17 in 100 (2019-22) and won the 2019 Turkish Super Cup.
His pace regressed with age, but he still showed that he could make an impact if he was bothered. A late flurry from 2017-21 saw Babel reinstated in the Netherlands national team after six years of exile. His last game came against Gibraltar in 2021, capping the end of an intriguing late-career renaissance.
Taking his foot off the gas ever further with yet another mini-Ajax return, Babel looks to have settled with his career ending in Turkey. Plying his trade in the second tier with Eyupspor since 2021, of course there will have been reflective moments. The ifs and buts. Yet, what no one can take away from the attacker, is that he did it his way and no one else's. And hey, at 36 years old with five goals in 29 – the veteran winger could move on again. You know what he's like. Fire up the #BabelCopter for one final ride…
