“It was wrong decision from me to not join Liverpool,” says former Borussia Dortmund midfielder Mario Gotze

 

Jurgen Klopp has taken a lot of time but has developed a team that can be very threatening in the Premier League and also in the Champions League. There is hardly any team that feels comfortable facing Liverpool these days.

The German has changed several ways of working at Merseyside and has also guided them to the Champions League title and also ended their drought over the Premier League title under the German’s tutelage.

Watching all of this former Borussia Dortmund midfielder Mario Gotze feels he should have joined Liverpool when Klopp decided to bring him in at Anfield. But Gotze decided against it. it is a decision that he now feels he should have taken.

“We are still in touch and we spoke back then about me coming to Liverpool. But I wasn’t in a state of mind where I could consider it, that’s why it didn’t happen.”

Currently, at PSV, Gotze adds that he does not have any regrets. But he surely adds and mentions that not joining Liverpool back then was a wrong decision from his side.

“Do I regret it? It’s always difficult to look back but if you ask me now then yeah, I should have joined Liverpool for sure. I just made a wrong decision but it’s not a regret.”

The 2014 World Cup star for Germany shared how Klopp built his career and had a huge role in Gotze turning into a special player. So the German international is now feeling in hindsight how joining him would have changed his career.

“Klopp probably made the biggest impact on my career. He can be very demanding – he can be your friend but also very harsh at the same time. It pushes you to great performances. That’s what happened with me back then, and it’s happened with Liverpool now.”

Klopp handed Gotze his professional debut for Borussia Dortmund when he was just 17 years old. He saw the talent in the youngster and believed in him. Although he never went to Anfield, Gotze was one of Liverpool’s prime targets when Klopp had just joined the club.

Gotze’s career however did not go as planned. Once known for his skills against the best teams is now spending his days in the Eredivisie for PSV. The German star was considered generational talent and his move to Bayern Munich was a big disaster for him personally. There Pep Guardiola tried different formations with him and often used him as a false nine disrupting his natural game and that turned out to be a big disaster for the youngster.

In 2016, Gotze returned back to Dortmund after an unsuccessful spell at Bayern and there he once again became an integral part of the squad before moving out to the Dutch League in 2020.

However, Gotze is still hopeful that there are chances of a reunion with his former manager Jurgen Klopp in future. “Can I imagine working with him again? I can imagine that, yes – we’ll see.”

Gotze has scored 11 goals this season from midfield in all competitions helping the team propel to the second position in the Eredivisie only behind Ajax Amsterdam.