Dominik Szoboszlai has committed the peak years of his career to Liverpool, signing a new contract that runs through to 2031 and slamming the door, for now, on the rumours that had begun to swirl around him.
Real Madrid had been mentioned. Of course they had. A 25-year-old playmaker with power, range and a highlight reel of goals was always going to attract glances from Spain. Liverpool’s response has been clear: he is not for sale, he is central to what comes next at Anfield.
From Leipzig arrival to Anfield mainstay
When Szoboszlai arrived from RB Leipzig in 2023, he was billed as a versatile attacking midfielder with a thunderous right foot. Three seasons on, that description feels far too small.
He has already racked up 154 appearances in red, a heavy workload that underlines just how quickly he has become indispensable. Thirty-one goals have come with those games, many of them the kind that stay in supporters’ minds – long-range drives, late winners, shots that seem to rise as they hit the net.
Managers have moved him across the pitch, trusting his intelligence and engine. Right, left, central, deeper when required. Wherever Liverpool have needed a spark, Szoboszlai has usually been somewhere close to the flame.
A captain for club and country
The armband is already familiar to him. He leads Hungary, the face and voice of a national side built around his energy and ambition. At Liverpool, he has become part of the leadership core, even without the official title.
Inside the dressing room, standards matter. Szoboszlai has helped set them. His work rate without the ball, his demands on teammates, the way he plays when the game turns frantic – all of it has pushed him from talented signing to on-field reference point.
That presence has inevitably drawn comparisons.
In the shadow of Gerrard, with echoes of Nedved
At Anfield, every midfielder who drives from deep and wears No.8 walks into the shadow of Steven Gerrard. Szoboszlai knows it. So do the fans.
Vladimir Smicer, a 2005 Champions League winner and former teammate of Gerrard, sees something familiar in the Hungarian’s rise. He has spoken of Szoboszlai as a potential future Liverpool captain and likened his style to Ballon d’Or winner Pavel Nedved – another relentless runner with a fierce shot and an edge to his game.
Smicer is careful with the Gerrard comparison. Nobody at Liverpool forgets that Gerrard was a local boy, raised on the streets around the stadium, the embodiment of city and club. Szoboszlai is carving a different path, coming from abroad, growing into the culture rather than being born into it.
But the trajectory is there. Three years in, still only 25, and already trusted in big moments. Smicer believes Gerrard himself enjoys watching Szoboszlai carry the No.8 shirt, and would not resist the idea of him being seen, one day, as a natural successor in spirit if not in story.
The looming question: who follows Van Dijk?
All of this feeds into one looming decision. Virgil van Dijk, current captain and defensive pillar, is out of contract next summer. If the Dutchman does not extend, Liverpool will need a new voice to lead them out at Anfield.
Smicer can see Szoboszlai being that man. Many inside the club and in the stands have started to think the same way. The midfielder has the profile: already a captain for his country, a regular starter, emotionally invested, and now tied down on a long-term deal that signals trust from above.
He would not be a continuity choice. He would be a statement that Liverpool’s next era belongs to the players in their mid-20s who are expected to carry the club through the rest of the decade.
Legacy, silverware and a season without defeat – so far
There is a reality check in all of this. Szoboszlai will almost certainly never match Gerrard’s status in the city. Very few could. Gerrard’s bond with Liverpool was unique, built over a lifetime.
What Szoboszlai can do is write his own chapter – and the outline is already strong. Long contract. Central role. Leadership credentials. Comparisons to elite names of the past. And a team around him that has opened the 2026-27 season without defeat, competing hard at home and in Europe.
If he does end up with the captain’s armband and lifts major trophies in that role, the conversation changes again. He will not just be the man who followed Gerrard’s number. He will be the one who defined what Liverpool looked like after Van Dijk.
The contract is signed. The rumours are quiet. The stage is his. Now the question is simple: how far can he take this team, and how high can he push his own name in Liverpool’s modern history?
