Liverpool have four players leaving Anfield after Champions League final vs Real Madrid

Liverpool train ahead of Champions League Final

We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info

Liverpool are set to wave goodbye to four players after the Champions League final on Saturday including the popular Divock Origi. The Reds conclude their season at the Stade de France in Paris seeking a third trophy of the campaign and what would be a seventh European Cup. Only 13-time champions Real Madrid, Saturday’s opponents, would have won more.

But Origi will play no part against Los Blancos. Jurgen Klopp said: “Div is definitely out for the final because he [got] injured in the last second of the last session yesterday. He got a muscle injury, so five days will not be enough for him.”

The Belgian, poised to join newly-crowned Italian champions AC Milan on a free transfer, will leave having scored 41 goals in 175 games at Anfield. Among his many memorable goals, he scored the decisive second in Liverpool’s last Champions League final against Tottenham in Madrid in 2019.

And a player who was in action the last time the Reds faced Real Madrid in a final, in Kyiv in 2018, will also exit the Merseyside club after this weekend’s showpiece match. Goalkeeper Loris Karius has not played a single competitive match for Liverpool since a disastrous evening in Ukraine, in which he made errors for two of Los Blancos’ three goals.

Karius’ contract expires like Origi’s and he will be free to move on having made 49 appearances for the club. He actually played more matches in a two-year loan spell at Besiktas. The German spent last year at Union Berlin but managed only four appearances and it is unclear where his next move will take him.

Ben Woodburn is another player who will depart at the end of his contract. The 11-cap Wales international is still only 22 having shot to prominence by becoming Liverpool’s youngest ever goalscorer in November 2016.

The academy graduate has only made 11 senior appearances for Liverpool but had a fruitful spell with Scottish Premiership side Hearts this term. Manager Robbie Neilson has already stated his desire to sign Woodburn permanently.

And the fourth player who is currently set to exit on a free is the vastly experienced James Milner. Arguably Liverpool’s greatest ever free transfer, Milner will be only 10 games shy of 300 appearances for the club if he plays in Paris having joined back in 2015.

Liverpool are in talks to hand Milner a new deal and Klopp said of the 36-year-old last month: “He’s a role model. I have told him, I can tell the whole world – nothing we have achieved in the last few years would have happened without James Milner, it’s as easy as that.”

But it is uncertain whether Milner will sign a short-term extension to stay on Merseyside a little longer or whether he will move on. He could complete an emotional return to boyhood club Leeds United, who survived relegation from the Premier League on the last day, if he wants a fresh challenge.

There has been some speculation third-choice goalkeeper Adrian is also out of contract this summer but it appears the Spaniard still has 12 months to run on his deal. Neco Williams, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Takumi Minamino, Ben Davies and Nat Phillips could also all move on, though Liverpool will recoup money for any of their exits given they all remain under contract.

Source: Read Full Article