Loris Karius’ forgotten spell at Man City as flop finally leaves Liverpool

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It's been 1,475 days since Loris Karius last kicked a ball for Liverpool, spending three seasons out on loan and one in the reserves since his infamous Champions League final showing against Real Madrid in 2018.

Single-handedly costing Liverpool the European Cup with two monumental howlers, Karius was temporarily shipped to Besiktas for two years, while Jurgen Klopp signed Brazilian no.1 Alisson Becker as his replacement.

Due to the reliable Alisson's brilliance between the sticks, his German predecessor has failed to re-stake a claim for a starting berth and has now left Anfield on the expiration of his contract. But an unknown stopping point in Karius' career is Manchester City.

After a spell at Stuttgart, the 6ft 2 custodian spent two years in the Citizens' youth set-up between the ages of 16 and 18, though he failed to make a first-team appearance before leaving for Mainz.

Karius told Sky Sports in 2018: "I played for the Under-18s and the reserves and was training every day with the first team really – with Joe Hart who was a great guy and helped me a lot back then.

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"He was a great role model and I don't really regret anything. But then I made a decision that I wanted to play first-team football regularly, and it was quite difficult for a young player, especially as a goalkeeper, so I thought I'd have to take a little step back to a smaller club."

"As long as I saw the chance to play there and progress as a young player and then hopefully move onto a bigger club in the future. That's what happened so it worked out well."

It was from Mainz that Liverpool signed Karius in a £4.75 million deal, but his time at Anfield will forever be remembered for his nightmare showing in the 2018 Champions League Final, which Liverpool lost 3–1.

First his careless throw was blocked by Karim Benzema and deflected into the net to make it 1-0 to the Spanish giants. And then he ended the Reds' hopes of any comeback when he mishandled Gareth Bale's 40-yard strike to let the Welshman put Los Blancos 3-1 up.

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