Lionel Messi: Jurgen Klopp says he wants to see Barcelona forward play in Premier League
Jurgen Klopp has ruled out Liverpool signing Lionel Messi this summer, but admits the Barcelona forward would prove a „great“ addition for the Premier League should he move to an English club.
Messi has told Barcelona he wants to exercise a clause in his contract, allowing him to leave for free with immediate effect, but the La Liga club believe it has expired and the player is contracted until 2021 with a £626m (€700m) release clause.
Asked whether Liverpool would like to sign the Argentina international, Klopp replied: „Interest? Who doesn’t want to have Messi in their team? But no chance. The numbers are absolutely not for us. But good player, to be honest!“
Sky Sports News has been told both Messi, who has played at the Nou Camp since 2004, and Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola want to renew their partnership at the Etihad ahead of the new season.
„It will obviously help Manchester City and make it more difficult to beat them,“ added Klopp.
„For the Premier League, it would be great 100 per cent to have the best player in the world, that would help but I am not sure the Premier League needs that boost.
„But it would be a boost for sure. It would be interesting as well to see. He has never played in another league other than in Spain. Football is different here. I would like to see it but I am not sure that I will.“
‘Don’t expect our best game of the season’
Liverpool face Arsenal in the Community Shield at Wembley on Saturday, less than five weeks after finishing 18 points clear of Guardiola’s side in the delayed Premier League 2019/20 season.
Klopp will be without without a number of first-team regulars including captain Jordan Henderson and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, but he confirmed Virgil van Dijk should be fit while he would make a late call on the availability of Trent Alexander-Arnold.
„I’d be surprised if we played our best game of the season – but it’s not a friendly, it’s a proper match against Arsenal,“ Klopp said.
Klopp believes he has to make the most of a situation that is not ideal.
„Would I want to play a proper game after two weeks’ preparation? No. But we’ve known about it for a while,“ he said.
„We don’t have friendlies, we have testing games. It’s a competition and it’s rare you have perfect time to prepare for a game.“
The German manager was coy on whether the club would bolster their squad ahead of the new campaign starting on September 12, with the transfer window in England scheduled to close on October 5.
„We bought players in already! Kostas (Tsimikas), the kids are getting closer and look well. I don’t know what will happen,“ he said.
„There is a long time to go until October 5. We will deal with our situation like we always have. We will see how much we can or want to spend.“
Klopp also refused to be drawn on whether Liverpool would sign Georginio Wijnaldum, who has less than 12 months left on his current contract at Anfield, to a new deal.
Klopp: No decisions made on how best to help Brewster
Meanwhile, Klopp said the club were yet to make a decision on whether Rhian Brewster would be a part of his plans this season after the 20-year-old scored twice to earn Liverpool a 2-2 draw in their friendly against RB Salzburg on Tuesday.
„We want to use Rhian but we also want to help Rhian,“ Klopp said. „That is why we have to make decisions, but not now. He looks really promising. He can score goals.
„He is still a young boy and, especially with his position as a number nine, experience helps a lot. We have to see how we can give him experience – whether it is here or somewhere else.
„But there’s no absolutely reason to rush anything. He will be involved tomorrow in the squad for sure.“
Soccer Accumulator Bonus
Our fantastic Euro Soccer accumulator offer gives you the chance to earn a bonus of up to 100% on accumulators on the top domestic leagues in Europe along with the group and knockout stages of the Champions League.
This offer applies to returns on pre-match accumulators of 3 or more selections on Full Time Result or Result/Both Teams To Score markets for the English Premier League, Italian Serie A, Spanish Primera Liga, German Bundesliga 1 or UEFA Champions League.
The maximum bonus that you can receive is ˆ100,000 or currency equivalent. The bonus will not apply where a stake has been fully Cashed Out. Where a stake has been partially Cashed Out, the bonus will be calculated based .on the remaining active stake. If a qualifying bet is edited .using our Edit Bet feature. The bonus will be calculated based on the new stake. Where a bet has been edited to include or amend a selection for an event that is In-Play, the bonus will no longer apply. Double Chance bets or combination bets with bonuses. Such as Lucky 15’s or Lucky .31’s do not apply for this offer.
If your bet is successful, we will add the following bonuses to your returns:
Bet Type Bonus
14-folds and upwards 100% bonus
Terms and Conditions
Applies to straight pre-match accumulator bets on the Full Time Result or Result/Both Teams To Score markets for UEFA Champions League, English Premier League, Italian Serie A, Spanish Primera Liga, German Bundesliga .1 or Australian A-League matches. Maximum bonus ˆ100,000 or currency equivalent. Soccer Accumulator Bonus does not apply to Double Chance bets or combination. bets with bonuses such as Lucky 15’s, Lucky 31’s etc.
If any selections are postponed/void then the bonus will still apply, but the percentage bonus added will reflect the actual number of winning selections. For example, an 8-fold accumulator with 7. winners and 1 postponed match will receive a 30% .bonus to returns.
The bonus part of your returns will be added to your account within 24 hours of your final selection having played.
This bonus will not apply where a stake has been fully Cashed Out. Where a stake has been partially Cashed Out, the bonus will be calculated based on the remaining active stake.
If a qualifying bet is edited using our Edit Bet feature, the bonus will be calculated based on the new stake. Where a bet has been edited to include or amend a selection for an event that is In-Play, the bonus will no longer apply.
Where any term of the offer or promotion is breached or there is any evidence of a series of bets placed by a customer or group of customers, which due to a deposit bonus, enhanced payments, free bets, risk free bets or any other promotional offer results in guaranteed customer profits irrespective of the outcome, whether individually or as part of a group, bet365 reserves the right to reclaim the bonus element of such offers and in their absolute discretion either settle bets at the correct odds, void the free and risk free. bets or void any bet funded by the deposit bonus.
In addition bet365 .reserve the right to levy an administration charge on the customer up to the value of the deposit bonus, free bet, risk free bet or additional payment to cover administrative costs. We further reserve the right to ask any customer to provide sufficient documentation for us to be satisfied in our absolute discretion as to the customer’s identity prior to us crediting any bonus, free bet, risk free bet or offer to their account.
All bet365 offers are intended for recreational players and bet365 may in its sole discretion limit the eligibility of customers to participate in all or part of any promotion.
.
