Title Winners
Jürgen Klopp
German Bundesliga:
2010/11, 2011/12
After losing their opening game of the 2010/11 season to Bayer 04 Leverkusen, Jürgen Klopp's Borussia Dortmund didn't particularly look like a team that was going to bring a first German title back to the Westfalenstadion since 2002. Yet 14 wins from the next 15 games followed and Klopp's side, which had 16-goal striker Lucas Barrios leading the line, went on to become the youngest team to win a Bundesliga title, with a couple of matches to spare. A year later they were even better. BVB lost three and drew one of their opening six fixtures, but then went on a Bundesliga record 28-game unbeaten run to retain their title in Klopp's fourth season in charge. Jürgen's team, which included 22-goal Robert Lewandowski up front, finished eight points clear of FC Bayern Munich and also set a new German top-flight points record of 81 after equalling FCB's previous record of 25 wins in a 34-game season. The fact that FC Bayern Munich have won every Bundesliga title since puts Jürgen's back-to-back Championships with Borussia Dortmund into context.
Dejan Lovren
Croatian First League:
2008/09, 2009/10
Since the Croatian First Football League – known as the Hrvatski Telekom Prva Liga – was established in 1992 following Croatian independence, GNK Dinamo Zagreb have dominated. The Blues have won 20 league titles, including 13 of the last 14, and Dejan Lovren was in their team for two of them. The Reds’ centre-back was a 19-year-old when he broke into the Dinamo team in 2008/09 and scored once (in a 1-0 win against NK Osijek) during 22 league appearances, finishing the season as a title winner. GNK Dinamo Zagreb retained their crown the following season with Lovren making 14 appearances, but he missed the celebrations after leaving the club mid-season to join Olympique Lyonnais. Incidentally, no Croatian player has ever received an English Premier League winners’ medal before as Leicester City FC’s Andrej Kramaric missed out in 2015/16 after only playing twice when, at the time, five appearances were required to get one.
Xherdan Shaqiri
Swiss Super League: 2009/10, 2010/11, 2011/12
German Bundesliga: 2012/13, 2013/14
The most decorated player in the Liverpool FC squad with 17 major honours won during his career so far, Xherdan Shaqiri's medal collection includes three Swiss Super League titles and a couple of German Bundesliga Championships. Shaqiri was just 17 when he broke into the FC Basel team at the start of 2009/10 and immediately became a regular, scoring four goals in 31 games. FC Basel dramatically won the title on the final day of the season, beating BSC Young Boys 2-0 away from home with both sides level on points going into the game. In 2010/11 they won it again in their final game, this time thanks to a 3-0 victory at home to FC Luzern with Shaqiri striking his 5th goal of the season. 2011/12 was a much more comfortable affair as FC Basel won the league by 20 points and Shaq contributed a career-best nine goals in 31 games, earning him a move to FC Bayern Munich. Back-to-back titles followed as Die FCB finished clear of Jürgen Klopp's Borussia Dortmund in both 2012/13 and 2013/14 with Shaqiri contributing 10 goals in 43 appearances across the two campaigns.
James Milner
English Premier League:
2011/12, 2013/14
Sergio Aguero's 94th minute winner against Queens Park Rangers FC on the final day of the 2011/12 season is one of the Premier League's most famous moments. His late strike clinched Manchester City FC's first league title since 1968 and earned James Milner, an unused substitute on the day, a Premier League winners' medal. A City player since 2010, Millie started 17 games and scored three times as the Cityzens pipped Manchester United FC to top-spot on goal difference, but two years later the title race was between Manchester City FC and Liverpool FC. Milner made 31 appearances in 2013/14, including as a substitute when the two sides met at Anfield in April. He created a goal for David Silva as City came back from 2-0 down to make it 2-2, only for Philippe Coutinho to fire home Liverpool's winner. However, it was the Mancunians who would go on to become Champions, earning Milner his second Premier League title although he clearly enjoyed the Anfield experience so much that he moved here permanently 12 months later.
Mo Salah
Swiss Super League:
2012/13, 2013/14
Mo Salah was aged 20 when he moved to Switzerland to sign for FC Basel in 2012 as a replacement for Xherdan Shaqiri. As unlikely as it seems now, Salah was largely used as an impact substitute during his first season there. The Egyptian international made 29 appearances in the Swiss Super League in 2012/13, but only 12 of them were starts and he played for 90 minutes on just eight occasions. He did, however, score five goals as FC Basel won the league, in what was the 115th season of top-flight football in Switzerland, by 20 points from FC Luzern. With former Liverpool FC defender Philipp Degen also in their side, FC Basel retained the title again in 2013/14, but Salah was only at the club for the first half of the season. Again, Mo wasn't always a regular, starting in 12 of his 18 appearances and scoring four goals. But after netting against Chelsea FC in the 2013 UEFA Europa League semi-final and during both of the clubs' 2013/14 UEFA Champions League group stage clashes, he signed for the West Londoners in January 2014 having played enough games to earn a second Swiss Super League winners' medal with FC Basel.
Virgil van Dijk
Scottish Premier League:
2013/14, 2014/15
Sir Kenny Dalglish won Championships with Celtic FC in Scotland before he was a Liverpool FC player and Virgil van Dijk did the same. The big Dutchman joined the Bhoys in 2013 and played in 36 of their 38 Scottish Premier League matches as they finished 29 points clear of Motherwell FC, losing only once. Virgil contributed five goals that season and netted another four in 35 appearances in 2014/15 as Celtic FC again ran away with the title, this time 18 points ahead of Aberdeen FC. Virgil moved on to Southampton FC and then became a Red in January 2018, but believes the expectation levels he experienced at Celtic Park aided his development. “The Scottish Premiership isn't the hardest in the world, but it's a league where everyone expects you to win and that was something new for me to deal with,” he said. “Winning Championships was something I hadn't experienced before at a young age and it made me a winner. It was very important for my development to go there.”
Sadio Mané
Austrian Bundesliga:
2013/14
Such is the respect that Sadio Mané holds his former club RB Salzburg in that earlier this season he apologised for helping Liverpool FC to knock them out of the UEFA Champions League. “I’m really grateful for this club and the fans and as well the people here,” he said after the Reds' 2-0 win in Austria in December. “Sorry guys, but this is football and we have to do it.” Mané spent two seasons at the RB Arena and in his second year there he was an Austrian Bundesliga winner. Having signed Hungarian goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi from LFC in the summer of 2013, RB Salzburg were more secure at the back and with Mané up front they netted 110 goals in 36 games. Sadio scored 13 of them, including a hat-trick in a 3-0 win at SV Grödig. Mané has gone to greater things with LFC and in December the man who signed him for RB Salzburg, technical director Christoph Freund, described him as the “best player in the world this year.”
Naby Keita
Austrian Bundesliga:
2014/15, 2015/16
Two months before Sadio Mané was sold to Southampton FC on 1st September 2014, Naby Keita signed for RB Salzburg. Just like they'd done with Mané, the Austrian club spotted a teenage Keita playing football in France Ligue 2 and recognised his potential. During his first season in Salzburg, Keita netted five goals in 30 appearances to help Die Mozartstädter retain the Austrian Bundesliga title. In 2015/16, his impact was even bigger, scoring 12 goals in 29 appearances including one in an 8-0 win against FC Admira Wacker Mödling on a day when Takumi Minamino was also on the scoresheet. RB Salzburg went on to win the league again, finishing nine points clear of Sportklub Rapid Wien. Notably, eight of Keita's 12 goals were his side's first or last goal of a game, a trend which has continued since the Guinea international became a Liverpool FC player in 2018 after two years with RB Leipzig. Ironically, it was Keita who opened the scoring from Mané's cross when the pair returned to the RB Arena with the Reds in December.
Takumi Minamino
Austrian Bundesliga:
2014/15, 2015/16, 2016/17, 2017/18, 2018/19 & 2019/20
No current Liverpool FC player has won more league titles than Takumi Minamino. He has previously been in championship-winning sides six times and the Japanese international midfielder enjoyed all six successes in the same county at the same club. After arriving in Austria from Cerezo Osaka in 2014, Minamino scored three times in 14 games en-route to winning his first league title. A year later, playing more regularly in the same side as Naby Keita, he more than trebled his tally with 10 goals in 32 games. Injury restricted Taki, as his team-mates call him, to 21 appearances in 2016/17, but he still hit 11 goals – including a hat-trick in a 6-1 win at SV Ried. With LFC-loanee Andre Wisdom also in the team, RB Salzburg won the title again. It was a similar story in 2017/18 and 2018/19 with Minamino contributing seven goals (in 28 games) and six goals (in 27 games) to take his league winners' medal tally to five, and he qualified for a sixth this season ahead of his Anfield arrival in January 2020. Not many players win two different leagues in the same season!
Gini Wijnaldum
Netherlands Eredivisie:
2014/15
Not only was Gini Wijnaldum a member of PSV Eindhoven's first title-winning side since 2008, he was also their leader. Appointed Club captain in 2013, Wijnaldum missed most of the 2013/14 campaign due to a back injury. PSV finished fourth, but with their skipper back on the pitch, and generally operating in the no.10 role to match his shirt number, it was a different story in 2014/15. Wijnaldum netted 14 goals in 34 Eredivisie appearances as the 1988 European Champions stormed their way to the title, clinching it with three games to spare following a 4-1 win at home to SC Heerenveen. At full-time it was Gini who lifted the plate-shaped Eredivisie trophy and the following day, on a stage in front of Eindhoven Town Hall, he paraded the silverware with his team-mates. Two years later, via a season at Newcastle United FC, Gini was a Red.
Fabinho
France Ligue 1:
2016/17
Only one team has stopped Paris Saint-Germain FC from winning France Ligue 1 in the last eight years and that was AS Monaco, in 2016/17, who had Fabinho in the centre of their midfield and occasionally playing at right-back. “I had a good season with Monaco,” reflected the Brazilian. “We scored a lot of goals and we had joy playing football.” If anything, that’s an understatement. AS Monaco scored 107 goals in their 38 league matches with Fabinho netting nine times, six of his goals coming from the penalty spot. He played in all but one game and, to put his goalscoring tally into context, AS Monaco’s teenage sensation striker Kylian Mbappe finished the campaign on 15 – just six goals more! Those goals propelled Les Rouges et Blancs (The Red and Whites) to their first Championship since 2000 with several of Fabinho’s team-mates, including Benjamin Mendy, Djibril Sidibé, Joao Moutinho, Bernardo Silva and Tiémoué Bakayoko, also now playing in the Premier League.
Alisson
Campeonato Gaucho:
2012/13, 2013/14, 2014/15, 2015/16
Finally, an honourable mention must go to Alisson who may not have won a Campeonato Brasileiro Série A title during his time with Sport Club Internacional in Brazil, but did win four state league titles. First held in 1919, Campeonato Gaucho runs between January and April for teams in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, while Série A (the national league) is held between May and December. Sport Club Internacional won the Campeonato Gaucho in consecutive seasons between 2013 and 2016 with Alisson making one, three, 15 and 17 appearances respectively during those campaigns. He's got his hands on a national league title now though...
