The former Schalke player helped shape almost the entire era of Jürgen Klopp at Liverpool FC. Before the Champions League semifinals, Matip talks about the special team spirit – and explains why it never gets boring with this coach.
Defender Joël Matip, 30, is one of the few key witnesses who witnessed Liverpool’s furious rise to a top club under coach Jürgen Klopp almost from the start. In the summer of 2016, Matip, who was born in Ruhrpott, left his youth club Schalke 04 on a free transfer to move to Liverpool. He was only the second entry of the Klopp era there. The German coach later spoke of the “best transfer” of his career several times because of the price-performance ratio.
