Liverpool know all about the impact a goalline decision can have on a season. But did you know it can also make or break an entire Reds career?

Such was the case for Bernard Diomede, the most successful player who never was at Anfield.

Diomede, who turns 51 today, completed a £3million move from Auxerre in the summer of 2000 having been part of then-manager Gerard Houllier's summer overhaul.

At the time he was only the third player in Liverpool's history to possess a World Cup winners' medal, having been part of the France squad that triumphed in their home country in 1998.

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Roger Hunt had won with England in 1966 and Karl-Heinz Riedle with Germany in 1990. Later, Gerry Byrne and Ian Callaghan would receive medals for being members of the winning England squad, while Fernando Torres, Pepe Reina, Xabi Alonso and Alvaro Arbeloa won with Spain in 2010. Alexis Mac Allister is the latest on the list.

Diomede remains in very select company. However, scratch beneath the surface and it was perhaps evident his reputation wasn't quite as revered as his fellow World Cup winners.

Diomede only made his France debut less than six months before the tournament began and featured three times in the World Cup finals themselves, none from the quarter-finals onwards. In fact, his 76-minute runout against Paraguay in the round of 16 was his final outing for his country. He won just eight caps.

The winger, though, did claim the Ligue 1 title with Auxerre in 1996 and, arriving at Liverpool aged 26, should have been approaching his prime. But it just didn't happen. Having made his debut in the UEFA Cup win over Rapid Bucharest, he was given his Premier League bow against Sunderland in September 2000.

An all-action display should have been capped with a goal just before half-time with a remarkable overhead kick television replays indicated had crossed the line before being cleared by goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen.

The officials, though, waved play on. It would have been the winner, with Liverpool drawing 1-1.

Diomede started the second leg against Rapid but, after injury, made only a 36-minute appearance from the bench at Manchester City as Liverpool went on to win a cup treble and qualify for the Champions League.

The Frenchman played the full 90 minutes of the Champions League qualifier second leg against Haka the following season, creating a goal for Emile Heskey, and that was it. The £3m outlay had given Liverpool five appearances and no goals.

"He's been very unlucky," said Houllier at the time. "I brought him here to give us some width, but then he got injured and, by the time he'd got himself back to fitness, the team had moved on."

Diomede spent the second half of 2002/03 on loan at Ajaccio in France before moving on a permanent basis. Within three years he was playing in the French third tier and, after 18 months without a club, he retired in January 2008.

Indeed, Diomede became something of a figure of fun when the France rugby union squad named their cockerel mascot after him for the 2003 World Cup in New Zealand. Diomede was less than amused, while the cockerel was soon sent home after being diagnosed as suffering from depression.

There is, though, a happier ending. Diomede, along with his wife, set up a football academy in 2008 near Paris that continues to help youngsters progress in both the game and their education. And the former Red has coached at various age levels with the French national youth teams and is currently boss of the under-18s.

Still, there are those who wonder what might have happened to his Liverpool career had that overhead kick been correctly allowed...

* A version of this story was first published in June 2020