Klopp admits disappointment over Arsenal skipper transfer failure
Suraj Radia
- 4 Oct 2022 12:15 CDT
- 4 min read
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has admitted he tried to sign Martin Odegaard while at Dortmund and described the Arsenal captain as a ‘top player.’
The Reds come up against league leaders Arsenal in their next Premier League game, with Odegaard beginning the campaign in fine form after scoring three times so far this season.
Speaking to Norwegian outlet T2, Klopp credited Odegaard for bouncing back from a ‘difficult start’ at Real Madrid and admitted he had nothing bad to say about the 23-year-old.
“I like him a lot,” Klopp said. “It was a bit more difficult at the start of his career when he was at Real Madrid and it looked like it might not work out.
“I was really disappointed by that, because we wanted him in Dortmund when he was very young. We had a long talk with his dad when he was kid still but in the end he decided on Madrid.
“That’s why I always followed him and I’m really happy that he’s become the player we all expected him to be, even better, in a massive role for an unbelievably strong Arsenal team.
“He is still young and has a clear mind, very influential. I can’t say anything negative about him, he’s a top player.”
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How close was Odegaard to joining Dortmund as a teenager?
Real Madrid signed Odegaard for €8 million as a 17-year-old but the Norway international initially struggled to settle in Spain and failed to break into the senior side.
Odegaard had loan spells at Heerenveen, Real Sociedad and Vitesse before joining Arsenal and, when asked how well he had done to turn his career round, Klopp was keen to praise the midfielder’s character.
Jürgen Klopp and Martin Ødegaard meet again on Sunday.
In this exclusive interview with TV 2 Norway, the Liverpool manager opens up on why he has followed the Arsenal captain’s career closely, and why the two have a special relationship. pic.twitter.com/CNreNXZq1w— Arilas Ould-Saada (@arilasos) October 3, 2022
“It is very, very impressive. You can only imagine how many talents, huge talents, ‘crazy’ talents, I have seen over the course of quite a while in the business,” Klopp said.
“At the time, Martin was 15 years old and already playing in Norway. The whole world went mad.
“Maybe I was too honest then because I told him he was still a kid and had to think about school so we wanted him in an environment where we make him grow.
“But if you compare Dortmund as a city, as nice as it is, to Madrid, I probably would have made the same decision. I would have loved for him to join us but it’s fine.
“Until he was 15, nothing probably went against him. After that, a lot of things went against him. It makes him the person he is now, the man he is now, and the player he is now and they are happy with how it has gone.”
