There’s an interesting claim from agent Nick Arcuri doing the rounds today regarding Liverpool’s former interest in hotshot Rodrygo.
The Brazilian sensation now plays at Real Madrid, but was formerly targeted by the Reds when he was a young teenager at Santos.
Until now though, we didn’t realise how close we actually were to securing the attacker, rated by many as the Next Neymar.
According to Arcuri, Klopp actually travelled to Brazil to watch Rodrygo (although we have doubts surrounding this claim) and that he had a meeting with Michael Edwards in our London office regarding a bid that Santos rejected.
“When Rodrygo went to make his first professional contract with Santos, aged 16, a Liverpool director called me,” he told a recent YouTube Q&A from a journalist.
“Saying that Klopp already knew the player, had seen the material, had already come to see Rodrygo personally. He had entered YouTube, searched ‘talents from Brazil’, Rodrygo had appeared and he was very young. He came to Brazil, liked him.”
“They contacted me, the Liverpool director wanted him to be his first signing, Rodrygo. I went to England, sat in London, Liverpool have an office in London. I brought the proposal to Modesto, then president of Santos. Modesto didn’t accept. It was Rodrygo’s sale so when he turned 18 he’d go to Liverpool. It turned out that Santos didn’t want to sell Rodrygo and made the first professional contract. So it was Rodrygo’s first official proposal, he was 16 and it was Liverpool.”
Rodrygo had scored seven goals this season before it was curtailed, but shot to worldwide prominence when he scored a hat-trick v Galatasaray in the Champions League Group Stages.
He is a phenomenal dribbler and has typical Brazilian flair and panache, although now he’s at Real Madrid, we can’t see him arriving at Anfield any time soon.