Loris Karius’ incredible new look as Liverpool confirm keeper’s Anfield nightmare is over

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Loris Karius’ calamitous spell at Liverpool has finally come to an end after it was confirmed that the German shot-stopper is being released on Thursday. Karius will be a free agent at the end of the month – and he’ll arrive at his next club with a brand new look.

Karius has spent six years on the books at Anfield, but the 28-year-old hasn’t played a single competitive game in a Reds shirt since his awful performance in the 2018 Champions League final defeat against Real Madrid.

Despite his lack of match action, the exiled goalkeeper hasn’t simply been sitting on his hands, as Karius is now seriously ripped. And the ex-Mainz stopper’s new bulked-up physique should stand him in good stead when he departs Merseyside for a fresh start this summer.

Karius’ calamitous performance against Real Madrid in the 2018 Champions League final denied the Reds what would have been a sixth European cup – although Jurgen Klopp’s side did make amends by winning the tournament a year later.

Karius, though, did not feature in that triumph over Tottenham and has instead spent the majority of his time since that nightmare night in Kyiv either in the gym or sitting on the bench. The Reds have done their part to try and help Karius kickstart his career; Karius was sent out on loan three times since that harrowing night against Madrid, twice to Besiktas in Turkey and once to Union Berlin in his native Germany.

But Karius was unable to impress enough to attract any permanent suitors – and he was even unable to secure a temporary move away at all last year, meaning he spent the entirety of the 2021/22 campaign without any regular first-team action.

Earlier this year, Klopp opened up on Karius’ situation and backed the shot-stopper to have a top-class career away from Anfield. He told Liverpool media: “So, there are different things. One is Loris Karius the player, who is doing absolutely nothing wrong, who is in a really good shape, who is training very hard. He is committed, the goalie coaches are fully committed, that’s clear. But before the season we made a decision. Obviously it was in the club’s interest as well that Loris finds a new club, stuff like this. That didn’t happen, so fine. We made a decision: he’ll be treated completely normally absolutely but we have the goalies.

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“As long as we don’t have a massive situation here, our No.1 is Ali, our No.2 is Caoimh, No.3 is Adrian, No.4 is Marcelo and then there’s already four goalkeepers.

“We were never in a situation where we had to use the fifth one. It has nothing to do with the quality, we made the decision and the boys do really well obviously. I think everybody is impressed by the development of Caoimhin Kelleher, who is ready for pretty much everything. We all know about the quality of Adrian and the impact he has on training and the dressing room and stuff like this and would always be ready to go. And Marcelo is an incredible talent, an absolutely incredible talent, the next one in line. That’s it.

“But Loris, I wish him only the best and he will find a club whenever – now or in the summer. And then from there he will go on, I’m very sure.”

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