Loris Karius: Alisson's Arrival Was a Complete Surprise

Loris Karius has revealed how he found out Liverpool were signing Alisson “in the news” and has spoken about coming out of retirement in Germany. Following two calamitous errors that cost Liverpool the Champions League in 2018, it seemed an inevitability that Karius would be replaced that summer. In the end, Liverpool did sort the position out, signing Alisson from Roma for £67 million, two months after that night in Kyiv. However, this caught Karius completely off guard, with the German thinking he was set to remain the Reds’ first-choice goalkeeper. Speaking to the Independent, the now 32-year-old recalled: “The conversation was that I’m going to start again in the new season. “It took me a bit off guard. I just read it in the news. “No one told me before that they were making the signing or spoke with me, but I guess that’s football. “When I asked why no one was informing me, they said they cannot let 30 players know every time we sign a player in their position. “There’s no bad blood or anything. Alisson has done a fantastic job up to today, he’s a great goalkeeper, but if they planned on this from the beginning, maybe someone could have like put me on notice a little earlier.” After the Champions League final, subsequent mistakes in pre-season confirmed to fans that he couldn’t be Liverpool’s shot stopper, but he was afforded a supportive greeting by supporters in a friendly against Torino at Anfield. A few weeks later, Karius was sent to Besiktas on a two-year loan, but his time in Turkiye was cut short by a season and he instead spent the 2020/21 campaign at Union Berlin, where he played just five times. Loris Karius’ ‘retirement’ and road to redemption With his Liverpool contract having expired, Karius was left without a club and not keen on any of the options presenting themselves. “I was retired because I didn’t do anything for seven months,” he said. “It sounds dramatic. In my mind, I was pretty much retired. It was not the worst six months. “I still enjoyed myself. I spent a lot of time with my family, I did a lot of travelling, a lot of things that normally you can’t do when you’re in your everyday routine. “Obviously I was still eager to play football, but I didn’t want to do anything I was not 100 percent behind.” That was until Newcastle came calling in late 2022. He played twice for the Magpies, one of those appearances incredibly coming at Wembley in the Carabao Cup for Newcastle‘s first major final since 1999. Following his two-year stint in the north east, he was again left without a club until joining Schalke last January. With the former giants facing possible relegation to the German third division, he played four times as they stayed up. This time around, Karius has been an integral part of the team which now sits top of Bundesliga 2, starting all 18 league matches and conceding just 10 goals. He added: “There’s been times when the confidence was lower. Now the confidence is obviously really high.” His redemption serves as nice story for a goalkeeper who was castigated for his mistakes – it is always worth remembering he may have been concussed by Sergio Ramos during the 2018 final. At 32 years old, there is plenty of time left for him to get back to the top level, especially if promotion to the Bundesliga goes to plan in May.