In 1990 he made the switch to England and to Reading; however, his playing career was cut short by injury and Rodgers didn't make a single appearance in English football during his year at the club.
Despite having his bourgeoning career ended at such a young age, Rodgers refused to languish or contemplate a life outside of football.
He was keen to return to the game in another role and in 1995 his old team Reading came calling. Rodgers would spend the next nine years as the club's academy manager, honing the talents of players who sometimes were not much younger than himself.
Then, in 2004, the man who had spent almost a decade spotting and nurturing footballing talent was talent-spotted himself by the self-proclaimed Special One.
Jose Mourinho saw the potential in Rodgers and brought him to Chelsea to play a key role in Roman Abramovich's revolution. By 2006 the man from Northern Ireland had impressed sufficiently to rise to the position of reserve team manager at Cobham.
Two years later, Rodgers made the step up to management - but to do so he had to take a step down, to the Championship, and Watford. The Hornets hired him to replace the outgoing Aidy Boothroyd and Rodgers took up the reins from caretaker manager Malky Mackay.
Rodgers steadied the Watford ship after a turbulent start to the 2008-09 campaign and a convincing end to the season saw them finish 13th in the league.
Next for Rodgers was a return to familiar ground. Reading, the club who had signed him as a young player, then again as a young coach, moved for the young manager to take on the role in the dug-out.
Despite a fine start to the season, Rodgers parted company with Reading in December 2009 but seven months later he would make his return to management with Swansea.
Within a year Swansea were promoted back to English football's top division, becoming the first Welsh team to play in the Premier League since its inception in 1992.
Rodgers had guided them to third place in the Championship playing an entertaining brand of possession football.
The Swans beat Nottingham Forrest 3-1 in the Championship play-off semi-finals to set up a meeting with Rodgers' former club Reading at Wembley on May 30, 2011.
A Scott Sinclair hat-trick on the day helped them to a dramatic 4-2 win and Rodgers and his men were on the way to the Barclays Premier League.
If anyone thought they'd overachieved in doing so, the Swans were about to go much further in impressing the neutrals. Upon their arrival in the Premier League, Swansea's style of play was a widespread revelation to fresh onlookers.
A fluid, entertaining brand of aggressive, possession football with the emphasis on composure on the ball and support for teammates off it, captivated Premier League audiences from the first game of the season to the last.
Teams had come up to the league before and played well, especially initially. They had pulled off some memorable wins and managed to finish in a respectable position that was at first thought out of reach, as Swansea did when they ended the 2011-12 campaign in 11th place.
But few, if any, teams gained promotion and spent their first season in the league propounding such a cultured style of play in such a convincing manner so consistently.
The Swans did so well that pundits compared their footballing philosophy to that of Barcelona.
Highlights included a win against Arsenal and a Luke Moore strike that sunk eventual title winners Manchester City in March. A Danny Graham goal that edged Liverpool on the final day of the season capped a wonderful season for the Swans.
The campaign had enhanced Rodgers' reputation to such a degree that he was now regarded as one of the finest young managers in football, and so it was no surprise when Liverpool registered their interest in his services after parting company with Kenny Dalglish in the summer of 2012.
Rodgers began his tenure at Anfield on June 1 with the aim of returning the club to the heights of English and European football.
| Birthplace: Carnlough, Northern Ireland |
| Other clubs as manager: Watford, Reading, Swansea City |
| Arrived from: Swansea City |
| Signed for LFC: 01.06.2012 |
| First game in charge: 02.08.2012 |
| Contract terminated: 03.09.2015 |
| LFC league games as manager: 122 |
| Total LFC games as manager: 192 |
| Competition | P | W | D | L | F | A |
| All Games | 192 | 103 | 42 | 47 | 347 | 218 |
| League Matches | 122 | 63 | 30 | 29 | 232 | 151 |
| FA Cup | 12 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 17 | 11 |
| League Cup | 9 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 13 | 13 |
| Europe | 22 | 9 | 6 | 7 | 28 | 25 |
| Other | 26 | 18 | 3 | 5 |
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