Jamie Carragher has revealed he trained with Manchester United as a youngster before becoming a Liverpool legend.
The former Reds defender made 737 appearances for the club, spending his entire career at Anfield.
However, he could have lined up for their bitter rivals had Carragher made a different decision during his academy days.
Having grown up an Everton fan, he joined local rivals Liverpool as a youngster in 1988 before winning the FA Youth Cup as a teenager.
Carragher has now admitted, though, that he had a brief stint at United ahead of his emergence as a Reds hero.
His revelation even left a stunned Gary Neville tipping his fellow pundit for success on reality television.
Carragher lifted the lid on how close he came to heading to Old Trafford on the latest episode of The Overlap on Tour.
During a drive through Europe, Carragher recalled: “I went to Man United for a little bit. Have I never told you that?
“There was a Sunday team who were playing a Man United select, but they weren’t Manchester lads.
“It was lads from all around the country who got put together and I played for a Sunday team. They asked me to play because they were playing Man United.
“They weren’t normally my team, it was to make them a bit stronger. So I played in this game, did quite well.”
Carragher’s performance was enough to impress World Cup winner Nobby Stiles, who was a youth team coach at United at the time.
Carragher revealed how close he came to joining the Reds’ bitter rivals[/caption]
Neville jokingly tipped his fellow pundit for glory on the BBC reality show The Traitors[/caption]
The former England hero approached the young defender’s dad, who saw an opportunity to prove a point to Liverpool.
He continued: “Nobby Stiles was running this team, pulls my dad after it.
“So then it was just before I was signing schoolboy forms for Liverpool. So my dad wanted to make Liverpool think that it wasn’t easy just to sign me.
“I ended up going to a Man United thing, Littleton Road. We stayed Friday, Saturday night, and played on the Sunday.
“And again I say about Man United being ahead of the game, all the lads who were in this weekend, when we then went to Littleton for the trials, it was all the same lads.”
However, it turned out there was never any chance of the Reds hero swapping Merseyside for Manchester.
Asked by Roy Keane if he would have joined the Red Devils, Carragher added: “I was never going, I don’t know, I just went there. My dad just used it as like a thing to (put pressure on Liverpool).”
Meanwhile, Gary Neville was stunned as he exclaimed: “You kept that quiet, didn’t you?
“So you were willing to play for Man United. You treacherous traitor. Should be on that programme Traitors you. You’d win that.”
Instead of joining United, Carragher went on to spend his entire career with Liverpool.
He scored four goals from defence as well as winning 11 trophies including the Champions League and two FA Cups.
By the time he retired aged 35 in 2013, Carragher was the club’s second leading appearance maker of all-time behind Ian Callaghan.