New signing reveals what gave Liverpool the edge over Bayern

Dan Butterfield

Liverpool’s first summer signing, Sepp van den Berg, has spoken about what made him choose the club over Bayern Munich.

The Champions League winners have announced the highly-rated 17-year-old will join them in July after agreeing a deal understood to be worth an initial £1.3million.

Van Den Berg made 15 appearances for the Eredivisie side last season.

The club have announced Van Den Berg has agreed a “long-term contract” subject to international clearance.

When asked about how he felt about joining the Reds, he said “Can I put it into words? It’s just amazing. It is, for me, the biggest club in the world and it’s a dream come true. I am really excited.”

However, he didn’t initially believe that Liverpool were interested in him. “I couldn’t believe it, I thought it was a joke. I was really happy and, to be honest, I was a little bit scared at first because such a big club had interest in me. So, I was a little bit scared but eventually I was really excited. Yeah, I am really happy to be here and looking forward to next season.”

The 17-year-old was then asked what made him choose Liverpool, he said “When I came here for the first time, it directly gave me a good feeling. The people who work here were really nice to me and everybody I met was really nice, so it gave me a good feeling – a family feeling, and that’s very important for me. I am a little bit of a family guy, so it was hard to leave home to come here, but I saw how the people looked after me. It gave me a really good feeling.”

“It is just unbelievable. I know in the past seasons they were great, but last season they were just unbelievable – a great team. I still can’t believe I am sitting here and hopefully I can play next year with those guys.” the centre back said when asked about the current European Champions.

Van De Berg Liverpool

“I was at home with the whole family, watching the TV. When they won, I was really happy, even though I had not signed for the club yet. I was really happy to see they had won it.”

Van den Berg then described himself as a player as many Liverpool fans wont have seen him in action before “I am a centre-half, I am calm with the ball, I am quite quick and can run, but I came here especially to improve myself more. I think this is the best place for me to grow and hopefully play a lot of games here.”

“I’ve seen what kind of players from the Academy have grown into the first team. It is unbelievable, especially when this kind of big club does that. Of course, the trainer [Klopp] is a great guy and one of the reasons they are successful – and also one of the reasons I came here.”

 

Van den Berg cites influence of Van Dijk

He also named Virgil Van Dijk as one of the big factors in him choosing the Reds over Bayern Munich. “I was thinking about [the idea of] training with Virgil. For me he is the best defender in the world right now, so I can learn a lot from him.”

Van Den Berg also spoke about his new teammate Ki-Jana Hoever, who made his debut for the Merseyside club last season “No, I haven’t spoken to him yet. But of course, seeing him make his debut, I was happy for him and it lets me see I can have an opportunity here, so that’s really nice.”

The former PEC Zwolle man also discussed his goals “Longer-term, I hope I can play as much as possible here for the club. Short-term, [my target is] to be with the first team, develop myself, grow into the team and see how it goes. Long-term, I really want to be a legend here.”

Sepp van den Berg

“I watched the videos of the parade and it was crazy; I saw so many people going crazy about a football club that won the Champions League – which of course is one of the biggest achievements. It was really nice to see the people here are so close with the club. I saw a lot of videos on social media how crazy they went when Liverpool won [the final]. I am really excited to meet the fans.”

“Yeah, of course. Football without fans is nothing. I can say Liverpool has the best fans in the world, so I am really excited to hopefully [get a chance] to play with them behind me.”

“Excited but a little nervous, too! I really look forward to the next season. I am nervous, but really excited.”

 

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