Former Liverpool striker Ngog on playing alongside Suarez & Torres & THAT goal against Man Utd

David Ngog will fondly remember European nights at Anfield and he is hoping the Europa League will put a spring back in his step, 11 years on from his Merseyside adventure.

The French striker is now plying his trade at Honved Budapest, leading the attack for the Hungarian club as they aim to reach the group stages of Europe's secondary competition.

Ngog originally left his boyhood club Paris Saint-Germain after being spotted by Rafa Benitez’s extensive scouting system at Liverpool and he has no regrets about the decision to move.

"It was an interesting proposition, I wanted to progress and Liverpool is one of the biggest clubs in the world and, for me, it was a big opportunity and I was really proud of it,” Ngog explains to Goal from Honved's Austrian training camp. 

In a squad including Fernando Torres, Dirk Kuyt and Robbie Keane, a teenage Ngog held his own thanks to the encouragement of Benitez, making 14 Premier League appearances and scoring twice, after opening his club account with a goal in a Champions League win over PSV Eindhoven. 

"I was young at the time but we had a really international team with many different nationalities so it was very easy for me to adapt. For me, Benitez was a great coach, he had a lot of experience and had won many trophies and knew how to manage great teams, so he made it really enjoyable to work with him."

For a budding striker, Melwood was a great place to be for Ngog, where he was allowed to spend every day with Fernando Torres and later Luis Suarez, two of the world’s best strikers, both peaking during their spells with Liverpool.

"You try to adapt and learn how to play with them, every striker has their own quality and I just tried to play my game. When I saw the movement of Torres or Suarez, I thought I could always take from them how they played and their finishing."

There is no doubt what the crowning moment of Ngog’s Liverpool career was, as he explains: "We won against Manchester United 2-0, I came off the bench and I scored. It’s such a huge rivalry and to score in front of the Kop made it one of the great moments as you always want to do well in such massive games for the fans, so I was very happy to score."

Roy Hodgson’s arrival did not do much for Liverpool’s fortunes but it did ensure more minutes for Ngog, who appeared 38 times in his final season for the club.

"We were in a transition, we lost some key players who left for different clubs, so we had new players and the coaching was different.

"We had some quality but it was a difficult time, the Premier League is hard as it is so competitive, so it was a bit more of a difficult time, but I was still enjoying playing for Liverpool.”

In the summer of 2011, Ngog departed for Bolton in search of more regular football with the Trotters.

"It was less international than Liverpool but it had a good history in the Premier League and they’d had many good players over the years, so that’s why I went there.

Getty

"It was more of family club, a bit quieter and I really enjoyed playing there, the players all stuck together and it was a good time for me."

A six-month spell at Swansea left a sour taste, however, as Ngog only featured three times after arriving in the January transfer window.

Since then he has enjoyed spells in France, Greece and Scotland, where he was reunited with former Bolton manager Owen Coyle, and he's now heading into his second season at Honved.

"It’s a historic club, you can feel the history, there are many fans in Budapest and all around Hungary.

"It’s a nice club, they are trying to do something good, they play good football, the facilities, the training ground are all brand new, so it’s a good place to be. I am still trying to develop and helping the club to achieve the best."

The club has been aided by investment from new owners, creating a resurgent Honved who were European Cup regulars in the early 1990s. The money has gone into the current squad and additionally to the youth academy, which has recently sold players to Benfica and Stoke City.

"We all want to be in the biggest competitions. The Europa League is not the Champions League but it is still a big competition. It will be a really great experience for Honved, we have three ties to get through for the group stages but we are really confident it will happen."

Ngog admits he does not keep in touch with anyone from his Liverpool days but is hoping his memories from Anfield can help inspire his current employers in the Europa League, where they face Universitatea Craiova in the second qualifying round second leg on Thursday night.