IN the shadows of Anfield on the corner of Sybil Road, there are 13 words etched on to a street-art mural with a painting of Trent Alexander-Arnold in his No 66 shirt.
‘I’m just a normal lad from Liverpool whose dream has just come true,’ it reads.
Every time you walk past it, there are kids posing for pictures in front of it. They are most probably being inspired by this local lad who had a dream and made it a reality by breaking through and winning trophies at his boyhood club.
Thousands of those youngsters will have thought that one day, it could be them. For the adults alongside them, Alexander-Arnold is the man who lives out their childhood ambitions of playing for Liverpool. The true Scouse heartbeat of the team.
But for Alexander-Arnold, those aforementioned dreams are just not enough any more.
He outlived them, wants a new challenge and sees Real Madrid as the place to achieve his new dreams. His future is not lifting trophies at his beloved Liverpool but testing himself in the Spanish capital.
Trent Alexander-Arnold will be leaving Liverpool at the end of the season
Real Madrid star Jude Bellingham tactfully avoided questions about his friend in November but his response indicated the direction of travel
The Scouser ends his 20-year association with the club, having won two Premier League titles and a Champions League among other prizes
In many ways, this was the worst-kept secret in football (second is that his new boss will not be current Real Madrid gaffer Carlo Ancelotti but former Reds icon Xabi Alonso).
The outcome had been in the works for months and you did not need to be a qualified body-language expert to work out where the saga was heading. One episode, set in the bowels of Anfield on a November evening, gave the game away somewhat.
It was nothing Alexander-Arnold did, but more the facial expressions of his good pal and soon-to-be club team-mate Jude Bellingham.
The England superstar was talking in the media room to preview Real Madrid’s visit to Liverpool – the Premier League champions recorded an emphatic 2-0 win, by the way – and Bellingham was asked for his thoughts on Alexander-Arnold’s future.
He smirked, then looked down at the table to compose himself before giving a media-trained answer: ‘I’ll be playing alongside him next year… for England. He’s a Liverpool player and it would be disrespectful to talk about (a move). He’s a good mate. Let’s see what happens.’
You could tell in his eye that Bellingham knew the direction of travel then, as did pretty much most of the room. At that point, though, Liverpool still had hope that they would extend Alexander-Arnold’s deal at Anfield.
Indeed, sporting director Richard Hughes initiated contact before he had officially moved from Bournemouth to Liverpool last summer. The Glaswegian transfer guru’s very first phone call in the job was to Alexander-Arnold’s representatives, outlining that a new deal was a priority.
Hughes might not have known it then, but that call 14 months ago was probably too late. His decision to leave was not set in stone but the seeds of doubt about his future were blooming apace in the player’s mind.
Alexander-Arnold lapped up the acclaim of the Anfield crown when the Reds were confirmed as Premier League champions last week
In recent weeks, Reds fans have clung to hopes of a late U-turn by the 26-year-old full back
A leadership issue that saw Liverpool plough through sporting directors – Hughes is the fourth in the last three years after Julian Ward and a short stay for Jorg Schmadtke – meant initial talks over a new contract started later than all parties may have liked.
Jurgen Klopp pulled him to one side in Singapore in summer 2023 to tell him he was being made vice-captain, outlining the club’s commitment to him, but due to a busy transfer window the idea of extending Alexander-Arnold’s deal was somewhat stalled.
Hughes cannot be blamed for the fact the England international is leaving. The Liverpool hierarchy is said to be satisfied they did all in their power to tempt him to stay, including a big-money offer that would have made him the best-paid full back in the country.
But despite cordial negotiations it soon became clear that Alexander-Arnold saw his future elsewhere and formal discussions were halted in March of this year when the player requested a face-to-face meeting with Arne Slot at the club’s Kirkby HQ.
He told him that he was planning to leave and that the decision was nothing against Slot or the current regime, just that he wanted to challenge himself elsewhere. The Dutch boss was understandably disappointed but reacted well.
Other managers may have seen the red mist descend and took action against the wantaway star – by not picking him for the XI, for example – but all parties came together and concluded they still had a common goal to win the Premier League, which they have now achieved.
The fact the news is now public will not change this either and Alexander-Arnold remains a key part of the team in the last three games, though his heir Conor Bradley is pushing for a start on Sunday against Arsenal. Whether they sign a new right back or not remains to be seen.
Real Madrid could not legally enter into talks until January 1 and sources insist this was the case but the Spanish champions must have had some sort of encouragement before then given they made an unsolicited approach to sign him early in the January transfer window.
Reports suggesting he wanted the same sky-high salaries as Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk are said to be wildly wide of the mark
His England colleague Bellingham has played a role in tempting him to the LaLiga giants
Alexander-Arnold will have three more matches in Liverpool red before he waves goodbye to the Anfield faithful
That approach came on December 30 and was swiftly rejected by Liverpool. Alexander-Arnold was on a short getaway in Venice at the time and was unaware of it until a few minutes before it became common news at 5pm on New Year’s Eve.
Several days before that, Mail Sport was the first English newspaper to report that Real Madrid were confident and starting to plan for life with Alexander-Arnold. Sources in Spain say that local media were briefed in February that he would sign but to keep it a secret out of respect.
Liverpool fans clung on to hope that a U-turn could occur but all the noise was that it was a matter of ‘when’ not ‘if’ Alexander-Arnold was pulling on the famous white jersey of Real Madrid and doing kick-ups at his Santiago Bernabeu unveiling.
So why and how did he reach the decision to leave?
It certainly has not been easy. Reports suggesting he wanted the same sky-high salaries as Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk are said to be wildly wide of the mark. His decision was never driven by money and both parties were realistic on this.
Alexander-Arnold did not like the comparisons to Michael Owen and Steve McManaman, who both left Liverpool for Real Madrid two decades ago, as his situation is different: he has won everything there is to win at Liverpool whereas those two had to leave to chase trophies.
He spent time weighing up the pros and cons of an exit and saw the fact he was next in line for the Reds captaincy as the pinnacle for a local lad. But the allure of Real Madrid was just too much.
To use his good mate Jude Bellingham’s words: ‘When Real Madrid comes knocking, the whole house shakes. It is hard not to open it and to accept it.’ To stick on that analogy, Florentino Perez came to the door and Alexander-Arnold invited him in for a cuppa.
Speaking to Mail Sport earlier in the year, Owen explained to us: ‘I had the opportunity to do what Trent’s doing (leave Liverpool for Madrid). I chose that because I thought that’d be an amazing experience. I wanted to give it a go.
‘You lose a little bit of control after that, you’re almost a trading commodity, you’re out there and if you’re doing well or not doing well, then you’re not that attached and ingrained to a club like you used to be.
‘But then again, the positives of going to Real Madrid are there for all to see. Life experience… We only live once. Living in a different country, learning a language, having a different climate, different food, all these things are quite incredible.
‘Playing with one of the biggest teams in the world, or probably the biggest team in the world could be quite tempting.’
The lifestyle change is up there with his primary reasons but the main one is to embark on a new challenge in his professional capacity. He has vocalised his desire to win personal accolades such as the Ballon d’Or and playing at Real Madrid gives a good platform to do that.
There is also the celebrity aspect and he is often doing fashion shoots that appear on billboards in cities like Milan and, er, Madrid. Alongside his brother and agent Tyler, he is an investor in Formula One team Alpine and is a regular in the Grand Prix paddocks.
He also pocketed £26million for his adidas boot deal signed in late 2023 and the German sportswear giants see him as one of their faces of European football.
Bellingham, of course, played a role in tempting him to the Bernabeu. The pair were pictured on rollercoasters together last summer – with Alexander-Arnold signing autographs for a young Real fan – and surely the topic came up.
But now the worst-kept secret in football is out, Alexander-Arnold will be the latest Galactico signing for Real Madrid, and Anfield will have to wave adios to the Scouse heartbeat of their team – whether they like it or not.
