Football

Loris Karius hopes to play for Liverpool again after Besiktas loan finishes


Loris Karius says he has put his 2018 Champions League calamity behind him and retains hope of playing again for Liverpool – or another Premier League team – following his loan stint at Besiktas. The German has not appeared for Jürgen Klopp’s team since making two ghastly errors in the 2018 Champions League final, after which the club moved decisively to buy an upgrade, paying a world record fee for a goalkeeper to sign Allison from Roma.

That appeared to signal the end of Karius’s career at Anfield, as later that summer he left on a two-year loan to Besiktas, who have an option to make the transfer permanent at the end of this season for £7.25m. Neither the Turkish club nor the player consider such a deal to be likely, meaning Karius will return to Liverpool, where his contract runs until 2021, or join another club.

“I have a loan until the end of the season and then I will see, back to Liverpool or somewhere else in England or somewhere in Germany, you never know,” said Karius after a 1-0 defeat by Wolves in the Europa League on Thursday. “Right now my focus is on playing games here every week and then we’ll see.

“I’ve enjoyed my time here. Of course if you play in England you are a bit more in the spotlight, but it’s a good club here, of course with some problems now and then. It was not always easy the last year and a bit since I’m here but overall the first season was quite good. The Premier League is the best league so it’s interesting of course but also I am still under contract at Liverpool, so maybe I’ll play for Liverpool again, you never know.

“It’s difficult to say now. If it’s not Liverpool it will be another decent team I am sure, so I am not worried.”

The 26-year-old said he had put his Champions League misfortune out of his mind and was not bothered if people doubt the explanation for his errors that emerged after the defeat to Real Madrid: that he had been concussed in a collision with Sergio Ramos. “I don’t think about it any more, it was so long ago, nearly two seasons,” he said. “There were so many circumstances; I had a bad injury and nobody was talking about it. People can say what they want – it doesn’t really concern me any more.

“After they assessed it we realised [the concussion] but in the game you have too much adrenaline to realise. It’s in the past. I’m happy they won it a year after. I still speak to the goalkeeping coach and some other players. They have a good chance again this year.”

If he were not in Turkey, Karius might have been recalled to the Liverpool team following Alisson’s injury at the start of this season; instead Adrián, a free agent signed in August, has filled the temporary vacancy. Karius suggests it must be a pleasure to play behind a defence that has made big progress since he left.

“The defence has improved brilliantly over the last season and a bit – they rarely concede goals any more,” he said. “Every goalkeeper would feel comfortable behind that defence but [Adrián] is doing a good job … [The defence] was solid even back when I was there but now it’s on another level, the whole team has improved. The longer that people are together, the more it fits.”

Karius’ time at Besiktas has not been plain sailing. After doing well last year, they are struggling on the domestic front and bottom of Europa League Group K. Karius made a costly error in the first group match, a 4-2 defeat by Slovan Bratislava. He criticised the ball that Uefa has introduced for this season’s group stage. “It’s a shame the match ball is not fit for a competition like this,” he said. “I think it is the worst I’ve ever played with. It just feels like soap and it moves around everywhere.”



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