"I came to Liverpool for success, but also because when I spoke to Jürgen he told me the way he wanted to play"
Klopp put us back on top
Gini Wijnaldum has been a Liverpool FC player for four years and is now a Premier League winner, but says it wouldn't have happened without the man who signed him...
Cast your mind back to 2016 and Jürgen Klopp's first summer transfer window. The Liverpool FC manager had been in charge at Anfield since October 2015 and, having assessed the team he inherited, identified the areas he wanted to strengthen.
Working alongside sporting director Michael Edwards, Klopp signed a centre-back with height in Joel Matip, and a forward with pace in Sadio Mané. He also wanted a versatile, energetic midfielder with the ability to operate equally well in different roles and score goals from the centre of the park. That man was Gini Wijnaldum.
The Netherlands international arrived from Newcastle United FC in July 2016. Four years later he is a Premier League winner, UEFA Champions League winner, UEFA Super Cup winner and a FIFA Club World Cup champion.
In almost 200 appearances his goals have included a winner against Manchester City FC, the fifth in a 5-2 victory against Everton FC and three in UEFA Champions League semi-finals, not least the two in three minutes he famously scored against FC Barcelona at Anfield last season.
Yet as Wijnaldum reflects on his four years as a Liverpool FC player shortly after adding a Premier League title to the Dutch Eredivisie title he won with Feyenoord Rotterdam in 2015, it is his manager that he wants to give credit to.
“Jürgen has done a lot for Liverpool FC,” he tells YNWA. “What we are achieving now is because of the way he structured the team and the Club again. He put the Club back on top, where it belongs.
“He is also the kind of person who will not take the credit. He will give the players the credit and the Club the credit, but he has done a lot for this Club. The work and effort he has put into the games and training sessions says a lot about him.
“I came to Liverpool for success, but also because when I spoke to Jürgen he told me the way he wanted to play, and how he wanted to build the team. The project was really interesting, so in that moment I wanted to be part of it.
“I wanted to be part of the Club, part of the project, part of the way Jürgen wanted to work with us as players. Now we have been successful because of this and it feels great.”
“When you think how much this means to the supporters, to us as a team and for the Club, I think everyone realises how big it is for us”
Liverpool FC's failure to win an English league title since 1990 feels like it has been spoken about more often than the weather during the last 30 years.
There were near misses in 2001/02 under Gerard Houllier, 2008/09 under Rafa Benitez and 2013/14 under Brendan Rodgers, but when Klopp's Reds accumulated 97 points in 2018/19 and still only finished as runners-up, LFC supporters all over the world began to wonder if it would ever happen.
Not any more. Liverpool FC are Champions of England for a 19th time and Wijnaldum is well aware of just what that means to every Red, whether you've seen Liverpool FC win league titles before or not.
“When you think how much this means to the supporters, to us as a team and for the Club, I think everyone realises how big it is for us,” he says.
“We won the Champions League last season, but for me this one definitely feels different because I know what it means for the Club and the supporters. They are both really big trophies, and trophies you want to win, but I know winning the Premier League means such a lot here.”
