Dominik Szoboszlai Commits to Liverpool and Captaincy Aspirations
Liverpool have moved to lock down one of the pillars of their present and, they believe, their future. Dominik Szoboszlai has signed a new contract that runs through to 2031, a statement deal that pushes away the transfer noise already gathering around Anfield’s No.8.
Real Madrid had been linked. Others would have followed. Instead, at 25, Szoboszlai is being backed to spend his prime years on Merseyside, right at the heart of Liverpool’s next cycle.
From Leipzig arrival to Anfield mainstay
When he arrived from RB Leipzig in 2023, Szoboszlai was billed as a high‑ceiling attacking midfielder with a highlight reel to match. Three seasons and 154 appearances later, he is something else entirely: a cornerstone.
Thirty-one goals have come in that time, many of them the kind that stay replaying in supporters’ minds on the way home. Long-range drives. Clean, rising strikes from the edge of the box. Technically immaculate finishes that speak to hours of repetition on the training pitch.
But the numbers only tell part of it. His versatility has quietly underpinned Liverpool’s evolution. Right of a midfield three, deeper as a controller, advanced as a creator – Szoboszlai has filled all those roles without losing his edge. Coaches lean on players like that. So do team-mates.
A captain in waiting
For Hungary, he already wears the armband. For Liverpool, he increasingly plays like he has it.
The standards are obvious. The running, the pressing, the insistence on tempo. At Anfield, that kind of presence carries echoes, and one name inevitably hovers over any discussion of leadership in midfield: Steven Gerrard.
Gerrard was the embodiment of club, city and crowd, a local hero who seemed to carry the Kop’s heartbeat onto the pitch. Szoboszlai does not share that upbringing, and those inside the club are careful not to lazily conflate the two. The bond between Gerrard and Liverpool was something singular.
Yet the comparisons keep coming, and not just to Gerrard. Some have drawn a line from Szoboszlai to Ballon d’Or winner Pavel Nedved, another relentless, two-way midfielder with a thunderous shot and a taste for big moments. Former Liverpool midfielder and 2005 Champions League winner Vladimir Smicer, a fellow Czech of Nedved’s generation, has spoken of the similarities he sees between the two.
Smicer, who knows what a dominant dressing-room figure looks like from his time alongside Gerrard, can also see where Szoboszlai’s Liverpool journey might be heading. With Virgil van Dijk’s contract set to expire next summer, the question of who takes the captain’s armband next looms large over Anfield.
Asked whether Szoboszlai could one day succeed the Dutchman as skipper, Smicer’s answer was clear: yes, eventually. In his eyes, the Hungarian is on the right track, carving out his own path while walking a line Gerrard once trod.
Following the No.8 tradition
The shirt on Szoboszlai’s back is not a coincidence. Liverpool’s No.8 is loaded with history, and the Hungarian has embraced that weight rather than shied away from it.
He will never be “the local lad” in the way Gerrard was. He may never command the same almost-mythical status among supporters that the former captain enjoys. That is the reality of following a legend who grew up within sight of the stadium.
What he can do is build a different kind of legacy – one based on longevity, trophies and a sustained period of influence in a team that is trying to reassert itself at the summit of English and European football.
Smicer believes Gerrard himself enjoys watching Szoboszlai carry that number and that responsibility. The idea of the Hungarian eventually being spoken of as Gerrard’s successor does not, in his view, jar with the club’s history. It feels like a natural evolution if Szoboszlai continues on this trajectory.
Silverware, status and the next era
Legacy at Liverpool is measured in medals as much as memories. If Szoboszlai is to etch his name alongside the greats, the captaincy would help, but the trophies will define it.
The platform is there. Liverpool have started the 2026-27 season unbeaten, building momentum both at home and in Europe. The spine of the team is settled, the style of play recognisable, the expectations rising again.
In that context, tying Szoboszlai to a long-term deal is not just about fending off Real Madrid or any other suitor. It is about identifying the player who can drive the club through the next phase, who can set the tone in the dressing room and, eventually, who can walk the team out at Anfield with the armband strapped to his bicep.
If that moment comes, it will not be a symbolic gesture. It will be the culmination of years of graft, growth and influence from a player who arrived as a talent and is steadily becoming a reference point.
Liverpool have made their move. Szoboszlai has committed his peak years. The question now is not whether he belongs at the centre of this team, but how high he can drag it – and whether, when the time comes to name a new captain, anyone will seriously look beyond the man already playing like one.
