FC Koln keeper Timo Horn has revealed that he turned down the chance to join Liverpool in the early stages of his career, but he is open to one day making the move to English football.
The 24-year-old, who is in the Billy Goats' squad to face Arsenal in the Europa League on Thursday night, decided to stay put in Germany when approached as a teenager.
Horn has no regrets over his decision to remain in the Bundesliga, citing Ron-Robert Zieler's disappointing spell with Leicester City, and he is now determined to make his mark against Arsenal.
"In principle the thought of moving to England is appealing but it's not something I'm thinking about right now," he told The Independent. "I can't rule it out completely. I often had chances and offers to move to England as a youth player, but in my opinion the best goalkeeping education is here in Germany which is why I've always stayed.
"At the age of 15 or 16, Liverpool were very interested in me. But I didn't go there because I felt the goalkeeping schooling in Germany was much better and I had enough examples, for instance Ron-Robert Zieler who came back after a year, and that's why I stayed in Koln. It definitely wasn't the wrong decision.
"It was hard to imagine that we'd ever play against Arsenal in a competitive fixture. To be taking them on in the Europa League a few years later... we could never have predicted that. I've always thought of Arsene Wenger as a fantastic manager.
"I like the football culture in England and Arsenal just had something in my view that the other teams didn't have. I've always enjoyed the style of football they try to employ even if they haven't won that many titles."
Horn, a part of the Koln setup since 2002, has represented Germany at eight different age levels without earning a senior cap.
Daniel Lewis
