Wijnaldum promises Liverpool fans "the rest of the story" about Reds exit

Georginio Wijnaldum says he was fighting back tears after admitting he is likely to leave Liverpool this summer.

Wijnaldum is out of contract this summer and has been linked with a move to the likes of Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich and Inter Milan.

The 30-year-old’s departure has been expected for several months but the Dutchman insists a decision has yet to be made.

"I'm fighting against tears right now. The people in Liverpool have shown me love during the five years. I will miss them, you know,” he told Sky Sports after Liverpool’s 2-0 victory over Crystal Palace.

"I will miss it. I hoped to play for many more years for the club, but unfortunately things were different. Everybody knows in football that anything can happen.

"The situation as it is right now is that on July 1 I'm not a Liverpool player any more, so it looks like now it is my last game, but as I say, in football anything can happen.

"We will see, but what I'll do in the next couple of weeks is I'll rest a little bit, and then I'll go to the national team.

"And I'll have to look at how I'll do my story [about his situation] because I think the fans deserve to know the rest of the story behind it and then we'll see from there.”

Wijnaldum arrived at Liverpool in the summer of 2016 when the club paid Newcastle United £25million for his services.

And it proved to be brilliant value for money, as he became an integral part of a Liverpool side who won the Champions League, Premier League and Club World Cup in recent seasons.

Wijnaldum has made 237 appearances for the club in total and his head coach Jurgen Klopp spoke passionately about the midfielder in his programme notes for the match with Palace.

Klopp described Wijnaldum as a ‘Liverpool legend now and forever’ and hailed him as a ‘wonderful, joyful, selfless person’.

And Klopp reiterated his ‘love’ for Wijnaldum when speaking to the club’s website after the Palace match.

Klopp said: “Where can I start? I met this wonderful player for the first time – we played, obviously, against him, and the first time I met him was in my living room at home because I had to see to him and talk to him. From the first moment it clicked between us.

“He is a very friendly, very smart, very open person, and that never changed, that just improved.

“Yes, it is very emotional for me because I lose a friend and I will miss him, that’s how it is. But it’s normal in football that these kinds of things happen – it’s not always nice, but normal, and I am really sure he will find a great place.

“Each club who is interested in him should call me and ask about him. Then you will take him, definitely, because I could not be more positive about what he did here. It’s incredible.”

He continued: “Now, it looks like the time is over but everything will be fine and nobody can take our memories from us. We will share them forever and that’s really great.

“I told him that after the game, he sees it the same way and the goodbye would not be tough if the time you had together was not worth it. So, it’s really tough because we had a great time together.”

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