Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp admits that he has wanted to work with Joel Matip since he left Borussia Dortmund at the end of last season.

The Cameroon international agreed to join the Merseyside giants on a free transfer, and will run down his contract with Schalke until the end of the season.




Joining Schalke’s academy in 2000, Matip progressed through the ranks at the club to become one of the mainstays of their defence and has made 243 senior apperances thus far.

Klopp believes the 24-year-old is already a very experienced defender for his age, and revealed that when he was on his sabbatical, he always thought about signing the centre-half from Schalke for his new club.
 


Dortmund and Schalke share a heated rivalry in Germany, and the Liverpool boss admits that even as  BVB manager he admired the quality of Matip from the opposition dugout, so when he got the opportunity to sign him, he snapped up the defender.

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The Liverpool manager told the club’s official website: “He is a top-class centre-half, very young but experienced. You don’t have that too often. To be honest, when I had my break I thought for the next club, I should think about Joel, if there was a need.

“He never played for my team, he did the extreme opposite – he played for their biggest opponent! Maybe that says a lot about his quality. Even when he played for the team you cannot love as Dortmund manager, you see his quality. Then that’s real quality.

“The chance was there and Joel wanted to do something different. He is and was really close to his club; it’s normal, he played there since he was a youth player.

“I think there was no chance for another Bundesliga club in this moment, but Liverpool was the right name and the right club.”

Matip is also an established international defender, and has 27 caps to his name for Cameroon.