Mario Gotze: 'I regret turning down Liverpool transfer'

Suraj Radia

• Updated: 6 Jul 2022 22:47 BST
• 3 min read

Former World Cup winner Mario Gotze has admitted his regret at turning down Liverpool to sign for Dortmund in 2016.

The 30-year-old has joined Eintracht Frankfurt after a spell with PSV and revealed he had a chance to sign for Klopp’s side when leaving Bayern Munich, but opted to re-join the club he started his career at instead.

“Liverpool had finished eighth in their first season with Jürgen and had not qualified for the Champions League,” Gotze told German news outlet Bild. “Even in previous years, it wasn’t the club that always played at the top.

“Dortmund had previously played a top season under Thomas Tuchel. BVB was on the up. Jürgen was still building something.

“In retrospect you have to say: Liverpool would have been better.”

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Klopp gave Gotze his debut at Dortmund as a 17-year-old before Bayern Munich activated his €37 million release clause to make him the most expensive German of all-time in 2013.

Despite scoring the winner in the 2014 World Cup final, injuries limited Gotze from having a prolonged career at his peak and the German had previously spoken about turning down Klopp again.

Speaking in April, Gotze said: “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.

“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.

However, Gotze also admitted his hope at rectifying his mistake and linking up with Klopp in the future after describing him as the best coaches he’s encountered in his career.

“Klopp probably made the biggest impact on my career,” Gotze said.

“He is a manager not just for the players but everyone at the club, and then one-on-one he can be a friend as well as a boss. Can I imagine working with him again? I can imagine that, yes – we’ll see.”