Steven is another talented youngster to emerge from the Anfield youth set-up. Having performed excellently for the reserves, he made his first team debut at Tottenham in December 1998, and has since had several opportunities to show the manager how good he is. Strong tackling and supplying the forwards are his trademark attributes. Such was his initial impression that England manager Kevin Keegan invited him to train with the national squad less than six months after his Premiership debut. He has since become a regular in the first team and also in the England squad. Gerrard, who picked up winners' medals in the UEFA Cup, Worthington Cup, FA Cup and European Super Cup in 2001, had played 138 games, scoring 15 goals, by this time.
On August 25, 2005, Gerrard was named as UEFA's Most Valuable Player for the 2004/05 Champions' League season. As of 14 November 2005 he has played for England 39 times and scored 6 international goals. He was also in the running for french sport newspaper L'Equipe's prestigious Ballon D'Or award. He finished 3rd behind Barcelona's Ronaldinho and England team-mate Frank Lampard. Nevertheless, even Ronaldinho said that 'Lampard and Gerrard are great football players'. On 11 December 2005, Gerrard came third in the BBC Sports Personality of the Year behind Ellen MacArthur (2nd) and Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff.
