Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has heaped praise on new signing Joel Matip, describing the young defender as a "top-class" talent.
The 24-year-old confirmed yesterday that he will move to Anfield at the end of the current campaign on a free transfer from Schalke 04, where he has spent his entire playing career thus far.
Klopp - former manager at Borussia Dortmund - revealed that he had previously clocked Matip as a "quality" player that he could potentially work with in the future and admitted that the German connection had assisted in the transfer.
"I am very happy. Everybody who knows him would have been interested. Maybe he's not the most famous player in England, but he's 24 and has played about 200 Bundesliga games for Schalke," Klopp told the Liverpool 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. Maybe it was a little advantage that I know him and he knows me. He's still a young player and for a young player, it could help to make the decision when there's a manager from your home country."
Matip had been one of Klopp's targets in the January transfer window but Schalke had been reluctant to sell, instead hoping that they would be able to tempt him into signing a contract extension.
Neil Wilkes
