He left a club after two seasons this summer but has not found another employer
The former Liverpool star opened up on a turbulent time in his career and life
Liverpool correspondent LEWIS STEELE tells all on bombshell chat with Mo Salah - LISTEN NOW to It's All Kicking Off! New episodes every Monday and Thursday
By LUKE POWER
Published: 13:53 EST, 27 November 2024 | Updated: 13:53 EST, 27 November 2024
Former Liverpool goalkeeper Loris Karius is considering hanging up his gloves aged 31 after failing to find a new club.
Karius left Newcastle over the summer after two seasons and appeared just twice for the the Magpies, one of those being in the 2022 Carabao Cup final defeat to Manchester United.
The German spent two seasons playing for Liverpool's first team, and four more on the books, but never featured again after making two grave errors in the 3-1 2018 Champions League final loss to Real Madrid at the end of his second season.
While he is proud of the achievement of reaching a European final, he admitted his confidence was shot by that night and and suffered from death threats and vile abuse. In the aftermath scans showed he had been injured in an off-the-ball incident involving Sergio Ramos which had impacted his performance.
Now, in a tell-all interview with SPORTbible, he says his career might be coming to an end.
'If you've been out for as long as I have then you obviously have to consider retirement,' he said.
Former Liverpool goalkeeper Loris Karius, 31, has revealed he might soon retire as he is clubless
He was part of the Liverpool side which reached the Champions League final in 2018
However, the match ended in two after he made two mistakes. He was later found to be injured
'I haven’t made a decision yet because there's no need to. I'm still fit. I still have all the potential and the ability.
'But if a door doesn't open then I have to be honest and say to myself, "Listen, I've got many other things that I can pursue that excite me, that I enjoy and put effort into." I don't think it would hit me that hard because I've already been going through this process over the last few years.'
Liverpool signed Alisson from Roma for £67.5million in the summer of 2018, making him the most expensive goalkeeper ever at the time.
Karius, meanwhile, went out on a succession of loans before eventually joining Newcastle in 2022. However, he admits that maybe he should have stayed to fight for minutes with the Reds, even if opportunities would have been hard to come by.
'I was trying not to pay any interest but you couldn't get away from it all. You still notice. People are telling you. I was getting confronted all the time. And that's why I wanted a fresh start rather than staying at Liverpool, where I could have been behind Alisson, and still getting game time,' he told SPORTbible.
'Maybe in the end that would have been the better step but it's difficult to say at that stage. The experience made me stronger as a person. It's part of my story. It's part of my history. At the end of the day, I was a Liverpool player. I reached the Champions League final. It didn't play out how I wanted but less than one percent of professional footballers play in a Champions League final. We did great things. You can't deny that.'
When Nick Pope was injured in the latter half of last season, Martin Dubravka was given the nod over Karius to fill in. This stung.
'In the second season, when (Nick) Pope was injured, I expected, or hoped, to play games,' said Karius. 'In the end, there was always a reason why it didn't happen. That's the only thing I look back on with regret because if I had played the second half of that season, then we probably wouldn't be talking now and I’d be at another club, starting afresh. But that's football. You can't change it.'
Champions LeagueLiverpool