Liverpool manager, Jurgen Klopp, has revealed that he had tried to sign Tottenham midfielder, Christian Eriksen, in 2013 when he was in charge of Borussia Dortmund.
Dortmund suffered a huge blow when German midfielder, Mario Gotze, joined arch rivals Bayern Munich in a shock move in 2012-13. The club needed to fill the massive hole left by Gotze, forcing Klopp to delve into the transfer market.
Klopp reveals that Eriksen, who was playing for Ajax at that time, was one of his prime targets, along with Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Kevin de Bruyne.
In the end, Dortmund secured a deal for Armenian international, Mkhitaryan, for a reported fee of £25m. Klopp says that the club scouted all three of them intensely, but Dortmund could have only signed any one of them.
The German adds that Eriksen is a great player and that every club in this world would love to have him in their side. He believes that the Danish midfielder has taken a great step in his career by joining Spurs.
Klopp said in an interview, as quoted by BT:
Christian Eriksen is a great player. Everyone would love to have him on their team.
At that time we scouted three players – Henrikh Mkhitariyan, Kevin de Bruyne and Christian Eriksen. We scouted all three of them intensely, but we knew we could only get one. We were happy to get Mkhitaryan.
Eriksen has become one of the key players for Tottenham under Mauricio Pochettino, and has been enjoying a great campaign so far.
He has been one of the top midfielders in the Premier League, and has five goals and eight assists to his name this term. Eriksen signed a new contract with Tottenham last season that will keep him at the club till 2020.
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