Klopp would have signed Bundesliga man instead of Salah

Julian Brandt would have been a Liverpool player rather than Mohamed Salah had Jurgen Klopp got his way, a report in Germany has claimed.

Salah has been a sensation for the Reds in his debut season for the club, scoring 36 goals in all competitions and becoming the front runner for the end of season player awards.

The 25-year-old arrived from Roma last summer but there had been doubts over whether he could crack the Premier League, especially after he failed miserably in a short spell at Chelsea earlier in his career.

And German journalist Raphael Honigstein has claimed that Salah was not Klopp’s top Liverpool target back in the summer, as reported in the Daily Express.

Instead, he wanted Leverkusen star Brandt, but Reds sporting director Michael Edwards intervened in the matter.

“Michael Edwards had been getting a lot of criticism in Liverpool for some of the decisions they’ve made over the last few years,” Honigstein told the Totally Football Show podcast.

“This is one where Klopp has just stepped aside and said, ‘I didn’t really want Salah, but he convinced me to take him.’

“They were going for Julian Brandt, who’s very talented, but it’s inconceivable to think what the season would have looked like if it had been Brandt instead of Salah, because Brandt has been OK but hasn’t turned into one of the best strikers overnight the way that Salah has.”

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