Liverpool icon Roberto Firmino has opened up on his decision to leave Liverpool during his new memoir as well as the emotional conversation he had with Jurgen Klopp before his departure to Saudi Arabia in the summer.
Firmino saw his minutes dwindle during his final campaign with the club as Liverpool forked out a combined £122m on Darwin Nunez and Cody Gakpo to help bolster their frontline. Once the Reds’ first-choice centre forward, Firmino made just 25 appearances in the Premier League during the 2022/2023 season as he slowly slid down the pecking order.
The Brazilian superstar recalls how “the penny dropped” that his time at Liverpool could be coming to an end after featuring as a last-minute substitute during a game against Wolves in May of last year. Shortly after the match, Firmino met with his agents to discuss his future.
It was there he came to the conclusion that he would have to leave Anfield in pursuit of more regular game time should the situation not improve, which it didn’t. With his contract set to expire at the end of the season and no renewal in sight, Firmino wrote a leaving speech on his phone and met with Klopp to deliver the news.
“And so we arrived at 3 March 2023,” wrote Firmino in his new memoir Si Senor: My Liverpool Years. “I wrote the message to Klopp on my own, on my cell phone, and let my heart guide my fingers. Then I went to training. After the session, I went to the Boss’s office and asked his assistant if he was available. When I walked into the room, Klopp was sitting behind his desk, drinking a cup of coffee.
“He looked at me and said, ‘I think I know what you want to talk about’. I’m not sure if he knew. Maybe he thought I was going to complain about not getting many minutes. Maybe he knew the topic could be my departure. I had my phone in my hand. I opened the note titled ‘Meeting’.
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“But I didn’t even need to read it. I had practised my speech so many times that I had memorised it. It felt like an eternity, but it only took a few seconds for it to leave my mouth. Our conversation didn’t last longer than five minutes.
“‘There are things that are not in my hands. I don’t have control over everything’, the Boss said. He accepted the decision very quickly. One of my fears was that he would insist on me staying. I had already made the decision guided by God and didn’t want to backtrack now. It had been hard enough getting this far.
“He had fought to keep my friend Philippe Coutinho a few years back; I didn’t want the same to happen with me. Now, having finally accepted the inevitable, I took the step I had never wanted to take.
“But no, Klopp didn’t insist. At that moment, it seemed like he already knew, or had come to terms with the idea. There would be no extension. It was over. I praised the Boss a lot, said he was the best coach I had ever worked with, and thanked him greatly for the opportunity he had given me at Liverpool. I think he felt awkward and it was the most emotional moment of the conversation.”
Firmino went on to sign a money-spinning three-year deal with Saudi Pro League side Al-Ahli in July worth a whooping £17million a season. He scored a hat-trick on his debut against Al-Hazem but hasn’t been able to get on the scoresheet again since.
The 23/24 home shirt for Liverpool pays homage to the past of the club, as well as collaborator Nike, with a strong 1970s influence. The iconic red, capped with bold white cuffs and collar really does invoke that classic Liverpool FC style while adding a cool retro touch
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