Jurgen Klopp gave Trent Alexander-Arnold his Liverpool debut as a teenager but the pair have since left Anfield
Trent Alexander-Arnold with Jurgen Klopp in 2024
Trent Alexander-Arnold with Jurgen Klopp in 2024(Image: Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
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Before leaving Liverpool, manager Jurgen Klopp foresaw Trent Alexander-Arnold captaining the side at some point in his career. It ultimately wasn't to be, though, with the defender leaving for Real Madrid in 2025.
Alexander-Arnold made his Reds debut under Klopp, starting a League Cup win over Tottenham just weeks after his 18th birthday. His Premier League bow came a couple of months later, and he was just 20 when he played the full 90 minutes of the 2019 Champions League final as the Reds tasted victory.
Liverpool followed that European triumph by claiming a long-awaited Premier League title just one year later. Alexander-Arnold was already a key player by then, and Klopp demonstrated that when he handed the right-back the captain's armband for a Champions League match against Midtjylland in December 2020.
It symbolised Alexander-Arnold's growing role within the squad, with Klopp acknowledging as much. "How you see the captaincy in this country is completely different to in Germany," he said at the time.
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"But I try to understand it despite most of my life being educated in a different way. Being a captain, it's not important who wears the armband, it's much more important how you behave all around and yes - Trent is someone who will be involved in this kind of role in the future.
Trent Alexander-Arnold at his Real Madrid unveiling
Alexander-Arnold left for Real Madrid in 2025(Image: Alberto Gardin/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images)
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"He is now already in parts playing this role, especially with the younger boys in the team - they all have a similar pathway to his. I don't think he was the best 'leader' in the line-up of the last game, but the reason was that he has been the longest at the club.
"The players are all captains, if you want, when they are out there but the decision for this was clear and it was Trent. When I told him, you could tell that it meant a lot to him - that's cool and it will be his role in the future when other people finish their careers and he is preparing himself for that.
"He will, in the future, be the face of this club - and with some others hopefully - but that is really nice. When I realised how much it meant to him, I was really happy that I made the decision - even though the decision was a logical one due to how long he's been at the club."
Alexander-Arnold would remain a senior figure within the squad, with Klopp naming him vice-captain in 2023 when Jordan Henderson left for Al Ettifaq and Virgil van Dijk took the armband. “I’ve never been shy of saying what my ambitions are – it’s always been to captain this club," Alexander-Arnold said when the decision was confirmed.
"This is a pathway and a stepping stone to that. It’s a role and responsibility I’m really looking forward to and I can’t wait to get the season started.”
That rise to the captaincy would never come, though, Alexander-Arnold left for Real Madrid in 2025, just weeks after playing his part in another title run for the Reds.
Van Dijk remains Liverpool's skipper and signed a contract extension just months before his team-mate's departure was made official. The Dutchman turns 35 in July and the Reds may need to start thinking about his successor soon but things haven't gone quite how Klopp envisaged back in 2020.
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