The defender in question was not one of Liverpool’s own superstars – Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk or Andy Robertson – but a 21-year-old from Castlederg in West Tyrone starting a Champions League match for the first time, halting a counter-attack in emphatic fashion to leave the world’s most expensive footballer in a dejected heap.
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Read MoreThere is a chance that Bradley will be Liverpool’s first-choice right-back next season. Alexander-Arnold’s contract is set to expire in the summer and there is no sign of a renewal, despite ongoing talks with Liverpool.
Madrid are confident they will get their man, despite Liverpool’s consistent briefings to the contrary, which would either leave the Reds needing to do some significant work in the transfer market, or pass the mantle straight on to Bradley, continuing his impressively speedy rise up the footballing ladder.
Bradley made his mark on Mbappe when Liverpool defeated Real Madrid (Photo: Getty)
“When he joined I actually didn’t know who he was, and I don’t think most of the fan base did,” Ryan Latham, a Bolton season ticket holder for 15 years and co-host of the Trotter Chatter podcast, tells The i Paper.
Their manager knew though. Even back in December 2021, when Bradley had only just dipped his toe in first-team action as a fresh-faced 18-year-old in the League Cup, Jurgen Klopp was speaking highly of him.
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Read MoreA few months later, Bradley was out on loan at Bolton and quickly made an impression.
“He took to it so well and took it all in his stride. He doesn’t seem to get particularly rattled, very professional.
He was allowed to express his youthful exuberance tactically though, deployed as a wing-back in a back five, collecting five goals and four assists in a league season that ended, agonisingly, with play-off semi-final defeat.
“I spent a lot of that year telling Liverpool fans how good this Conor Bradley was and they kept looking at me like I had three heads!”
Bradley is already a star for Northern Ireland (Photo: Getty)“I was asked to go to a cup final in Omagh to watch Conor playing for St Pat’s, who deserve tremendous credit for the start in the game they gave him,” McAree told the BBC.
“I cannot believe he is now playing right-back, though. He was a forward player for us, spraying the ball around the pitch. His passing was exceptional. His awareness of where to distribute a ball – that was Conor’s strength, and he could cover the ground as well.
Son of Linda and Joe, who sadly passed away in February 2024 having run a van dealership his whole life, Bradley signed for McAree’s employer, Dungannon Swifts two years later. He popped up on Liverpool’s radar too, spending his Friday nights attending the Premier League side’s school of excellence in Belfast. The Reds kept close tabs on him, sending a senior coach over to Dungannon to see where Bradley was playing his regular football and ensure facilities and coaching was up to scratch.
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Read MoreAnd he had already made his debut for the first-team, Liverpool’s first Northern Irish player since 1954, by the time he was sent to Bolton for a year in 2022. He had hoped simply to play more games, given his lack of top-level experience, but ended up getting a whole lot more than that.
“It was the consistency that he offered. It got to a point where teams were double-marking him on that side,” says Latham.
“And I think that shows that the level that he was at. We almost didn’t realise what we had at the time.”
Bradley celebrates EFL Trophy victory with Bolton boss Ian Evatt in 2023 (Photo: Getty)“It was a typical ‘Don’t fall in love with loan player’ moment, but we did. Now [when Bradley plays for Liverpool], it’s like watching your kids playing,” Latham adds.
He has a small place in Liverpool fans’ affections already too, that tackle on Mbappe alone earning it. He did something similar in one of his first appearances for Northern Ireland, coming off the bench against Switzerland and immediately drawing a huge roar from the Windsor Park crowd.
“He tackles. People look at him as this quietly spoken kid but he’s got devilment – he couldn’t wait to make that tackle against Switzerland. He would line them up and be licking his lips. You could see that toughness in him which I always loved.”
Replacing Alexander-Arnold as Liverpool’s first choice right-back would be a significant step up, but the 21-year-old has not yet found one too high for him.
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