Dominik Szoboszlai Commits to Liverpool – Future as Captain?

Dominik Szoboszlai has nailed his colours to the Liverpool mast. A new long-term contract keeps him at Anfield until 2031, a statement deal that shuts down the transfer noise – including talk of Real Madrid – and plants the 25-year-old firmly at the heart of Liverpool’s next era.

This is not a punt on potential. Liverpool are doubling down on a player already central to how they play now and how they plan to evolve.

From Leipzig prospect to Anfield reference point

Since arriving from RB Leipzig in 2023, Szoboszlai has become a fixture rather than a flourish. Three seasons, 154 appearances, 31 goals. The numbers tell one story; the manner of those goals tells another. He doesn’t just score. He thunders, whips and lashes in strikes that change the temperature inside a stadium.

His versatility has been a manager’s dream. Right side, left side, deeper, higher – Szoboszlai has filled gaps and raised standards at the same time. For Hungary, he already wears the armband. For Liverpool, he increasingly plays like a man who knows the team bends around his decisions.

Inside the dressing room, that matters. On the training pitch, even more. Liverpool’s staff see a player who trains like a senior pro, plays like one, and talks like one. That’s why this contract feels less like a reward and more like a natural next step.

Echoes of Nedved, shadows of Gerrard

When a player is compared to Pavel Nedved, you listen. The Ballon d’Or winner set the benchmark for relentless running married to real craft. Vladimír Šmicer, who knows a thing or two about elite midfielders and big Anfield nights, sees those same traits in Szoboszlai – the drive, the engine, the ability to shape a game from midfield.

And then there is the other comparison. The dangerous one. Steven Gerrard.

Liverpool’s current No.8 is walking in the footsteps of the club’s greatest modern captain. That shirt is heavy. The memories attached to it are heavier. Yet Szoboszlai has embraced that responsibility rather than shied away from it.

Šmicer, speaking to GOAL in association with Grosvenor Sport, did not flinch when asked if Szoboszlai could one day succeed Virgil van Dijk as captain.

“One day, yes. I can see it,” he said, before drawing a clear line between the two eras. Gerrard was Liverpool in a way few players ever are – a local lad, raised on the Kop’s roar, carrying the city on his shoulders. Szoboszlai is different: a leader from outside who has had to earn every ounce of that connection.

Three years in, he is doing exactly that.

The next captain in waiting?

Van Dijk’s contract runs out next summer. At some point, Liverpool will need a new voice to walk the team out at Anfield. The shortlist is not long. Szoboszlai is firmly on it.

Šmicer believes the Hungarian is on the right path to be spoken about as Gerrard’s successor in spirit, if not in story. Gerrard, he suggests, would welcome that. Not as a rival to his legacy, but as a continuation of it.

There is no attempt to pretend Szoboszlai will ever mean to Liverpool what Gerrard did. How could he? Gerrard was the embodiment of the city in boots. Szoboszlai is carving out a different kind of bond – one built on performances, presence and the sense that, in big moments, the ball should find his feet.

Legacy, silverware and a season wide open

Contracts are one thing. Legacy is another. To etch his name into Liverpool’s modern history, Szoboszlai will need medals, not just minutes. The captaincy would sharpen that focus. Lifting trophies in red while wearing the armband would change how his time at the club is remembered.

The platform is there. Liverpool have started the 2026-27 season unbeaten, building momentum at home and in Europe. The team is evolving, the spine is shifting, and new leaders are emerging.

In the middle of it all, Szoboszlai has committed his prime years to Anfield. Now the question is not whether he belongs in this Liverpool side. It’s whether, by the time 2031 comes around, he will be remembered as the man who led it.