‘Rocket’ Ronny Rosenthal is one of three players from Israel to have played for Liverpool, along with Avi Cohen and Yossi Benayoun. One of the most popular players in the early nineties, he was a goal-scoring sensation when he first joined on loan. Unfortunately he will probably be best remembered for missing an open goal against Aston Villa in the 1992/93 season.
Ronny was born in October, 1963 in Haifa, Israel. When he was eleven years old, he joined the youth team for the famous Israeli side Maccabi Haifa. He made his first team debut when he was sixteen and scored twice on his debut after coming on as a substitute. Ronny spent seven years with Maccabi Haifa, despite their coach Jack Mansell trying to release him on a free transfer in 1982. The Club president Yochanan Vollach, was a big fan of Ronny and refused to allow him to leave the club for any price. He was rewarded in 1983/84 when they won their first ever League Title, with Ronny a major part of a three man strike-force. Ronny was an integral part of the side in the following season as Maccabi retained the league title.
In 1986 he moved to Belgium, signing for Club Brugge. During the 1987/88 season he was part of the team that won the Belgian League title and reached the semi finals of the UEFA Cup. In 1988 Ronny moved to rival side Standard Liege but he never really managed to become regular in the team. During his first season, 1988/89 he was loaned out to Italian side, Udinese. In the following season he was loaned out again, this time on a trial basis with the English side Luton Town. Ronny played a number of games for Luton’s reserves but they were unable to secure a permanent transfer from Standard Liege.
It was at this point that Liverpool stepped in after being impressed with Ronny’s performances in the Luton Town reserves. Kenny Dalglish offered Ronny a trial at Anfield in March 1990 and he made his debut in a reserve game against Man Utd. Ronny couldn’t have made a better start by playing superbly and scoring in a 2-1 victory for Liverpool. He scored two more goals in his second reserve game against Huddersfield and followed that with another goal against Tranmere Rovers. Kenny had seen enough quality in Ronny to sign him on loan until the end of the season.
He made his debut for the first team as a substitute against Southampton at Anfield. Ronny was brought on with the Reds losing 2-1 and he changed the game. With his first touch he made an incredible run which led to a Liverpool corner. The Reds equalised from the resulting corner and led by the exciting Ronny, they went on to win the game 3-2. In the next league game against Charlton Athletic, Ronny was named in the starting line-up. Liverpool won 4-0 and Ronny scored the perfect hat-trick, one with his left foot, one goal with his right and another with his head.
Peter Beardsley had fallen out of favour with Kenny Dalglish and Ronny was chosen to partner Ian Rush up front during the remainder of the season. He went on to score more goals against Nottingham Forest and Chelsea in his next two games and was an absolute sensation. Ronny scored seven goals in the last eight games of the season as Liverpool went on to win their eighteenth league championship. Unfortunately Ronny was denied a championship medal as he hadn’t played enough games to be eligible. I’ve always thought that he should have been given one anyway because without his goals in the title run-in, Liverpool may not have won the league. I will never forget just how exciting it was watching Ronny Rosenthal during this loan period. I remember thinking something amazing was about to happen every time he got the ball. He was the type of explosive player that comes about rarely.
During the summer of 1990, Kenny Dalglish had one of the easiest decisions to make as a manager when he decided to sign Ronny permanently. Liverpool paid £1.1 million to Standard Liege to make him a full time part of the squad. At the start of the 1990/91 season, Peter Beardsley was back in the side and playing incredibly as Liverpool won their opening six games. Ronny was a substitute during this period and didn’t make his first start until December when Beardsley was injured. Ronny took his chance with aplomb by scoring two great goals in a 3-2 victory over Southampton. He followed this up with a man of the match performance against Leeds Utd. Ronny scored one goal and set up the other two including one for Ian Rush in a 3-0 win.
The second half of the 1990/91 season was a total disaster for Liverpool and Ronny personally. For reasons I don’t quite understand, Kenny Dalglish brought in two more strikers, David Speedie and Jimmy Carter. Neither of these players lasted very long at Anfield and were sold on after only a handful of games each. Speedie had an explosive start, scoring against Man Utd and Everton in his first two games but was sold to Blackburn Rovers after twelve appearances. Ronny hardly played at all for the remainder of the season and only scored one more goal, against Chelsea. Despite not playing much for the first team, Ronny proved how good he was by scoring eighteen goals in twenty five games for the reserves.
The 1990/91 season was overshadowed by the resignation of Kenny Dalglish following a 4-4 draw with Everton in the F.A Cup in February 1991. Ronnie Moran took over as caretaker boss and was soon replaced by Graeme Souness. Unfortunately Liverpool lost their momentum and had to concede the league title to Arsenal.
The following season was a poor one by previous standards as Souness began dismantling the side, selling off great players and purchasing bad ones. With the signing of Dean Saunders, and Mark Walters, as well as Ian Rush still being a regular, Ronny was used mostly as a substitute during the 1991/92 season. Liverpool finished in sixth place (eighteen points behind champions Leeds Utd) during the final season before the First Division became the Premiership. This was pretty embarrassing for a side that had dominated the previous twenty years. The saving grace of the season for Liverpool was a fifth F.A. Cup Final victory, with a 2-0 win over Sunderland who were then in the Second Division. Ronny was included in the squad but wasn’t named in the starting team or as a substitute.
The 1992/93 season was simply more of the same for Ronny as he was in and out of the side on a regular basis. He started in the Charity Shield against Leeds Utd, but finished on the losing side as Leeds won 4-3 with a hat-trick from Cantona. It was during this season that Ronny was involved in his most infamous moment as a Liverpool player. It was in an away game at Aston Villa, which was also Dean Saunders first game against Liverpool since he was sold after just one season. Aston Villa won 4-2 and Saunders scored two goals one of which was an absolute stunner, one of the greatest I’ve ever seen. The most famous moment of the game (and probably the season) came when Ronny rounded the goalkeeper and had an empty net in front of him with no defenders pressuring him. Amazingly he somehow hit the crossbar from a mere ten yards away. I have no clue why he didn’t just roll the ball into the net instead of lifting it off the ground. To this day it remains one of the funniest and most famous misses ever.
Ronny actually went through some great form in the latter part of 1992. He was part of the team that went 3-0 down to Chesterfield in the League Cup at Anfield. He scored a diving header to kick-start a Liverpool comeback and the game eventually finished 4-4. He then scored two goals in a 4-1 win over Middlesbrough and scored a late winner away at QPR. In March 1993 Ronny scored one of his most memorable goals in the Merseyside derby at Anfield. In the last minute with the game heading for a 0-0 draw, Ronny was put through on goal by Ian Rush. He cracked the ball into the corner of the net in front of The Kop and sent the crowd into absolute delirium. This had been another poor season and Liverpool had nothing to play for going into the game, so Ronny’s winner had given the fans something to really get excited about. After the game Ronny revealed in a TV interview that when he finally left the pitch, after a standing ovation, the rest of the players were in the bath singing his name.
Nigel Clough was signed at the start of the following season and it was clear that Ronny didn’t feature in Souness’s long term plans. So after three substitute appearances at the start of the 1993/94 season, Ronny took a pay cut and joined Tottenham Hotspur for £300,000. He scored on his league debut for Spurs with an amazing twenty yard header against Sheffield Wednesday. He was one of their most important players that season as they only just avoided relegation. His most famous moment for Spurs came in an F.A Cup game against Southampton in 1995. Southampton were leading 2-0 at half time and Ronny came off the bench to score a hat-trick and Spurs won the game 6-2. In the following round Spurs played Liverpool at Anfield and Ronny received a thunderous ovation from the crowd before helping his new side to a 2-1 victory.
In August 1997 Ronny joined Watford on a free transfer. Graeme Taylor was in his second spell as manager and during the 1997/98 season Watford went on to win the Second Division title. Ronny scored the goal of the season against Blackpool and was a really important member of the side. Injuries ruined the following season and Ronny managed five more games for Watford before retiring at the end of the 1998/99 season. Ronny now works as a football agent and continues to live in England. His son is also a talented footballer and plays in the Watford Academy.
Ronny Rosenthal never managed to cement a regular place in the side during his three seasons as a Liverpool player despite being extremely talented. Anybody who was watching Liverpool in 1990 will tell you what an incredible impact Ronny made during his initial loan spell. His performances that drove Liverpool to the 1990 First Division championship were simply breathtaking. He remains to this day one of the most popular players in recent history and is regarded as a ‘cult icon’. His enduring popularity amongst Liverpool supporters was reflected in his placing of 76 in the series ‘100 Players Who Shook the Kop’.
