There are footballers who win trophies, break records, and chase glory across multiple leagues — and then there are those who become eternal symbols of loyalty. Jamie Carragher, the Liverpool icon, has just been officially recognized as one of the latter.

Ahead of Athletic Bilbao’s clash against Girona, the Basque club honoured Carragher with the prestigious 2025 One-Club-Man Award, a distinction given each year to players who devoted their entire professional career to a single team. Carragher, who spent 17 years at Liverpool, becomes the 10th recipient of the award and only the second Englishman ever to receive it.

For Carragher, the honour is more than just a personal accolade. It cements his place in a lineage of footballers who embody the spirit of loyalty in a modern game increasingly dominated by transfers, mega-contracts, and short-term pursuits of success. The award, established by Athletic Club in 2015, celebrates values that mirror their own philosophy: commitment to a single badge, a single city, and a single set of fans.

During his career at Anfield, Carragher made 737 appearances, the second-most in Liverpool history, and was a defensive pillar for over a decade. He lifted the Champions League in 2005, the UEFA Cup, two FA Cups, and three League Cups, while building a reputation as a warrior who wore his heart on his sleeve. More than numbers or trophies, however, Carragher symbolized unwavering dedication to Liverpool Football Club.

The presentation in Bilbao carried special meaning. The One-Club-Man Award has previously been awarded to legends such as Paolo Maldini (AC Milan), Francesco Totti (AS Roma), and Sepp Maier (Bayern Munich) — players who, like Carragher, resisted the allure of new horizons in favour of lifelong devotion to their boyhood teams.

For the fans, Carragher’s recognition is a reminder of a fading ideal in modern football: that true greatness is not only measured in medals, but in loyalty, sacrifice, and love for the shirt. As the Anfield faithful often say, Carragher may not have been the flashiest, but he was one of their own — and now, the world acknowledges it.