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The Anfield Café, as the name suggests, lies in the shadow of Liverpool FC’s home and is a shrine to the club’s past and present glories, styled in the traditional red of the six-time European champions and covered with images of famous moments in the outfit’s history.

And Liverpool FC’s Official Training Partner AXA sent Paddy McGuinness to visit owners Helen, her brother and her son, who opened ten years ago and quickly discovered how unique an opportunity it was.

Speaking to Paddy, who’s currently hosting a Team Behind The Team series in partnership with AXA, Helen said: “It’s pretty special. I didn’t realise at first.”

Opening just around the corner from Anfield, they were rapidly embraced by the LFC family, becoming an essential matchday experience for many supporters.

"The fans are great. By half eight in the morning, we’re rammed. There’s hundreds of fans, we can’t keep up!”

Of course, one of the attractions for supporters is the Anfield burger. Helen’s own recipe, it’s a towering construct of three beef patties, bacon, eggs and mushrooms that certainly won't leave fans hungry on a matchday.

“He walked in and the customers were just clapping him. I heard a commotion and here he was in the middle of the floor. He stood up on the chair and he signed the picture for us. He sat with the fans in here and had a chat with them.”

This typifies the bond that even some of the most legendary figures in LFC’s past have with the present-day support.

Robbie Fowler, who stands sixth in the club’s all-time goal scoring charts, having enjoyed two spells at Anfield, joined Paddy and Helen to explain that during his career, too, the businesses around the club’s home were always important for the players.

And he candidly admitted that the players in his day used the local shops and eateries more than their management might have liked them to.

“We’d leave Anfield, and we’d fill up with our sweets and our drinks, and you’d maybe get something from a café. That’s what we did back then,” Fowler explained.

The Anfield Café is just one of the local businesses that are a vital part of the team behind the team at Liverpool FC.

Find out more about AXA's Team Behind the Team series by clicking the link below.

LFC Community

#TeamBehindTheTeam

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