Mario Gotze admits he regrets not leaving Borussia Dortmund to play under at Liverpool.
The German was heavily linked with a move to Anfield in the summer of 2016 having previously worked with Klopp at the Bundesliga giants.
Back then Gotze was at the top of his game and is still fondly remembered for scoring the winning goal in the 2014 World Cup final.
But now plying his trade at PSV Eindhoven, he’s now come to the realisation his career could have played out very differently had he followed Klopp to Liverpool instead of moving to .
‘We are still in touch and we spoke back then about me coming to Liverpool,’ Gotze told the . ‘But I wasn’t in a state of mind where I could consider it, that’s why it didn’t happen.
‘Do I regret it? It’s always difficult to look back but if you ask me now then yeah, I should have joined Liverpool for sure. I just made a wrong decision but it’s not a regret.
‘Klopp probably made the biggest impact on my career. He can be very demanding – he can be your friend but also very harsh at the same time. It pushes you to great performances. That’s what happened with me back then, and it’s happened with Liverpool now.
‘He is a manager not just for the players but everyone at the club, and then one-on-one he can be a friend as well as a boss. Can I imagine working with him again? I can imagine that, yes – we’ll see.
‘He’s a good coach, for sure. He and Pep Guardiola are the most important coaches and characters I had in my career.’
Gotze and Klopp won two Bundesliga titles together at Dortmund before the attacking midfielder went on to win another three league titles with rivals Bayern.
Klopp has since delivered Liverpool a maiden Premier League title and won the Champions League with his Reds.
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