England striker Heskey shoots for Liverpool return. Wigan striker Emile Heskey hopes his impressive England form has opened up a route back to Liverpool.
The 30-year-old Heskey, who can leave on a free transfer at the end of the season when his contract expires, left Liverpool in 2004 after more 100 appearances and moved to Birmingham City.
After three years out of the England team, his international career was revived last year under Steve McClaren and has been maintained by Fabio Capello. Heskey made his 50th appearance for England in Wednesday’s 4-1 win at Belarus.
“A move to Liverpool would be lovely. Who knows what will happen. Let’s see how it goes,” Heskey said Friday. “Everyone wants to play in Europe at the highest level. Everyone knows that I’m in the last year of my contract, so speculation is bound to happen …
“I’ve been in putting in some good performances and people appreciate that.”
Wigan manager Steve Bruce has been impressed by Heskey and accepts that a “smaller, so-called unfashionable club” will struggle to retain top players.
“It’s quite staggering what’s happened to him over the last few weeks, and I think a lot of it’s got to come down to the condition that Emile’s got himself in,” Bruce said. “It’s great that we’ve got an England center forward playing for Wigan. Of course, the paper speculation now is that he’s leaving us – that’s the downside of it – but everybody involved with the club is delighted for him.”
