Chicago Fire midfielder Xherdan Shaqiri made 45 appearances and scored seven goals for Liverpool during his three year stint with the club. The Swiss international maintains a great relationship with LFC and their manager Jurgen Klopp. Shaqiri, at his introductory press conference in Chicago in February, mentioned that he still keeps in touch with the German.
Shaq’s former club is currently in a very heated Premier League title race, with Manchester City, and he was asked about it yesterday while on a press call. Shaqiri is rooting for his former club to lift the trophy when all is said and done.
“I hope they can do it this year,” Shaqiri said ahead of his side’s big match against LA Galaxy on Saturday night.
“They are pretty much in a lot of competitions still. As you know, (the) Premier League is very hard and very competitive. This year will be probably with City, two teams that are going to go for it, and we will see in the end. But as I see now, the fixtures, Liverpool has a more difficult one than City, but there is no really simple games in the Premier League.
“So it’s going to be tough until the end. It’s also good to see an interesting end this year to the Premier League, but I hope they can do it.”
Liverpool and City just played to an exciting 2-2 draw at The Etihad this past Sunday, and they’ll meet yet again on Saturday, this time in the FA Cup semifinals at Wembley Stadium too. Don’t be shocked if they meet once more, on the last Saturday in May for the Champions League final in Paris. These two sides are truly developing a real rivalry now.
Much closer to his current home, Shaqiri was also asked by the media about settling in in Chicago and the MLS.
“I’m enjoying the time here every day, and I’m not coming here as a tourist,” he said.
“I’m coming to work and I’m coming to bring the club again to glory. This is my goal here to work every day hard and to help this team to grow, to try to compete with the best teams in the league and to try to win trophies. I think this is my goal, and this is the goal of the club to go forward.
“Yeah, my first goal is to go to the playoffs with this team, and then we’ll see. But, of course we need improvement, we need to get better.
“This is pretty normal. But I’m enjoying every day here.
“We have a very, very nice group. Everybody at the club is happy to work every day here, and you can see the excitement of every person, who is working for the club. I’m really excited to be here. I’m really looking forward to playing a lot of games and to help this club and for this team to go forward, trying to win trophies, which is very important for me.
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager of The Bank (TheSportsBank.Net) and author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” as well as “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune, and co-hosts the After Extra Time podcast. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.