Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp will face his former team, Borussia Dortmund, in a preseason friendly in a couple of hours. At the prematch press conference yesterday in Charlotte, Klopp made a lot of waves with his owning up to how his views of egregious transfer spending have evolved over time.
Those remarks overshadowed his comments on another transfer related matter- the links between his current club and his former club’s attacking midfielder Christian Pulisic. Klopp is quite familiar with the 19-year-old wonder kid, having worked with him during his days at BVB.
Jurgen Klopp said he believes that Dortmund is the right fit for Pulisic at this point in order to further his career, but also refused to rule out a future reunion.
When asked about how realistic a Liverpool approach for the American international is, Klopp responded:
“He has a contract at Dortmund, no? That’s the first problem. I like Christian, I’ve known him since he was a kid. He’s still not really old, he’s a fantastic player, and it’s deserved people think highly of him in America.”
“In Germany, it’s the same. If he wants to play in England or whatever one day then for sure he has the chance to do so but he’s at a really good club for his development at this moment.
“It’s really good to be at a club where they know him already. He had not his best season last year but he was still a decisive player but it’s important in that age group that there’s no rush.
“He still has 14 or 15 years to play in his career and that’s good and he wants to be the best Pulisic he can be. For this, there is still space for development. If – at one point – he will join us, I don’t know.”
“I like him, it’s not that that could be the problem, but we respect contracts still and there’s no market I know about at the moment. We did our business and Dortmund are doing theirs. All good.”
On Thursday evening Pulisic responded to a question about the transfer rumors surrounding him, as he’s been linked to Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United.
“It’s not distracting at all to me. I don’t pay too much attention to it,” Pulisic told the media at a very noisy sponsored event in Chicago (he was not made available during normal media opportunities for some bizarre reason) the night before his side beat Manchester City 1-0 in a preseason friendly.
“Right now I’m focused with Dortmund. I want to have a good preseason. That’s all I can focus on right now.”
Speaking of Liverpool-Pulisic links (well, sort of, if we play fast and loose with the definition of “links”), basketball superstar LeBron James was photographed wearing Pulisic’s jersey, and that’s kind of a big deal because King James hardly ever wears anybody else’s jersey, and oh by the way he owns a 2% stake in Liverpool.
“It was unbelievable for me. He’s one of my favorite athletes,” Pulisic said of James sporting his shirt.
“To see him wearing my jersey is pretty cool, as you could imagine.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, is currently a regular contributor to SB Nation, WGN CLTV and Chicago Now.
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