It’s a special week for Newcastle football legend Craig Johnston.
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He’s back in Australia for a match between English football giants Liverpool and A-League champions Sydney FC.
Johnston, who grew up at Speers Point, is the reason many Australians support Liverpool.
He was part of the iconic Liverpool team of the 1980s – one of the greatest sides in soccer history.
But he doesn’t need Wednesday’s match to trigger memories of that period, saying “I relive it every day”.
Nevertheless, Liverpool playing in Sydney was “like completion of a loop and a dream”.
Like many fans, Johnston is looking forward to hearing fans sing the famous Liverpool anthem, You’ll Never Walk Alone, before the match.
“It’s the war cry,” he said.
The emotion the song evokes in players and fans reminds him of his time spent in North West England.
“To live in a city like Liverpool was culturally intriguing and amazing because the Scousers are very unique people,” he said.
“They have a unique perspective on life. The way they are, the way they think, the way they live and what they expect of their football team is part of the Liverpool story.”
Johnston said there were similarities between Liverpudlians and Novocastrians.
“There’s a lot of Irish underpinning both cultures.
“There’s very much a dry sense of humour. They work hard, play hard and have an inbuilt distrust of authority.”
The match comes straight after the English Premier League season, which finished on Monday.
Not all Liverpool players are expected to make the trip to Sydney and the squad will include four retired players, including former captain Steven Gerrard.
But Johnston said the players’ professionalism should shine through.
“If a Sydney player kicks one of the boys, all of a sudden it becomes more meaty and real,” he said.
“I hope it’s a good game out of respect for the savvy Aussie audience.”
Johnston aims to work with Liverpool on his own legacy in Australia, teaching the power of sport and the benefits of teamwork.
His “SUPAskills” training system is based on the famous methods he taught himself to become a better player as a teenager at Middlesbrough and, later, at Liverpool.
“We’ve got to get more kids playing more sport more often,” he said.
He encourages kids to appreciate the “joys and benefits of running, screaming, laughing and winning and losing together”.
These values are key to the annual Craig Johnston Cup, which is planned for September at Lake Macquarie High School.