Liverpool FC News: The KEY role Jurgen Klopp played in Naby Keita’s Ferencvaros transfer

Naby Keita has joined Ferencvaros in a surprise move.

The former Liverpool midfielder becomes just the second player with a Champions League winner's medal to play in Hungary's top flight.

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Which makes Ferencvaros a bit of an unusual destination for Keita.

However, given his injury problems over the last couple of years and his inability to play more than 500 minutes of competitive action in a single season since the 2021/22 campaign, it shouldn't really be a surprise that he has ended up here.

It's incredible to think that when he first walked in through the doors at Anfield just over six years ago, he was lauded as the heir to Steven Gerrard's throne.

Even so Anfield Watch understands Keita rejected offers from Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Sunderland as well in order to sign for Ferencvaros, so just how have the Hungarian club been able to pull this off?

Well, one factor that played a key role is Jurgen Klopp's unlikely connection with the club.

How Jurgen Klopp played a key role in Naby Keita's transfer

Klopp is actually well connected with Ferencvaros' sporting director Tamas Hajnal. The former Hungarian international played under Klopp at Borussia Dortmund and has maintained a strong relationship with the German.

Back in Madrid during the 2019 Champions League final the pair embraced in front of Television cameras when Hajnal was working as a pundit on Hungary's M4 channel.

In that final, even Hajnal himself probably did not envisage that just five years later he would be signing a key member of that Liverpool squad.

But that is what has happened. Hajnal has pulled off a major coup convincing Keita to join Ferencvaros, where he will team up with Matheus Saldanha, who has an uncanny resemblance to Roberto Firmino.

And the transfer was completed with a assistance from Klopp himself, who supposedly gave glowing remarks about his former protege to Hajnal.

"It's a huge success for the club that we've reached a level where a Champions League-winning player would even consider talking to us, that this could be an interesting project and challenge for him," Hajnal told Fradi TV.

"On the other hand, of course, it's a huge motivation and a goal for us to get him back to the form that is approximately the level he has represented in recent years," he added.

Hajnal then went onto to reveal that he held a discussion with Klopp and Keita.

"I spoke to Jürgen Klopp about it and he was actually incredibly positive," Hajnal said.

"He said in German that he was a "weltklasse spieler", meaning a "world-class player". He spoke very positively about him, that when his health allowed it, he was always a key player for him.

"He didn't say anything about his personality that would actually be a problem. So that also confirmed for us that it was worth continuing to look into it and going even deeper.

"Expectations should not be set too high at first. We have taken care of this in the contractual structure. We are taking relatively few risks with this, so we think that the positive impact we can achieve with this can be really huge if everyone can get the most out of it together."

Anfield Watch understands a part of Keita's wages will be covered by Werder Bremen during the initial one year loan deal, which also gives Ferencvaros an option to purchase the Guinean international.

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