Alexander Isak was unsurprisingly on the end of relentless boos from fans of former club Newcastle as he made his return to St James’ Park for Liverpool in their Premier League opener.
Isak forced a move out of Newcastle last summer, going on strike before eventually joining Liverpool for a record fee of £125m.
This burned bridges with the vast majority of the Magpies fanbase, who previously adored him for his goalscoring heroics over three seasons. The Swede also played a pivotal role in Newcastle’s first piece of domestic silverware in 70 years, scoring against Liverpool in a 2-0 Carabao Cup final win in March 2025.
Isak was unable to play in last year’s Tyneside meeting between the two teams due to injury, meaning Sunday’s season curtain-raiser acted as his first St James’ Park comeback as a Liverpool player.
Alexander Isak gets a warm welcome back to St James’ Park. “Rat rat rat.” #NUFC pic.twitter.com/SFjhJs9rtw
The abuse was instantaneous for Isak as soon as he touched down at his former stomping grounds, with chants of “rat, rat, rat” being directed at him after he stepped off the Liverpool team bus.
After the announcement of Isak’s name was met with whistles, the 26-year-old kicked the game off to a chorus of boos from the centre-spot, which was a sign of things to come.
He continued to be jeered every time he received the ball and a crunching challenge on him, which left the striker hurt, provoked one of the largest cheers of the day from the home faithful, at that point second only to Anthony Elanga’s fifth-minute opener.
Magpies fans also aimed X-rated chants at Isak, singing: “There’s only one greedy b******”.
Isak, who scored 54 goals in 84 Premier League matches across his Newcastle career, will hope he can begin to replicate those numbers for Liverpool after injury and poor form led to a dud of a debut season at Anfield last term.
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