Liverpool didn’t give me feeling of wanting to keep me, reveals Georginio Wijnaldum
Georginio Wijnaldum spent five years at Liverpool
|Paris Saint-Germain’s Georginio Wijnaldum has admitted that he wanted to stay at Liverpool and expressed the desire to do so, but the club did not step up and replicate that. The Dutch midfielder left Anfield this summer after a five-year long spell, and signed for PSG on a free-transfer.
While many believed that Liverpool overpaid for Georginio Wijnaldum when they signed the midfielder from Newcastle United in 2016, few will deny the impact he made. The Dutch international went on to make over 200 appearances for the Reds, winning both the Champions League and the Premier League, amongst other trophies, along the way. Not only that, Wijnaldum became a key part of Jurgen Klopp’s side, averaging more than 30 games a season.
However, with the midfielder walking into the 2020/21 season in the final year of his contract, it had many fans concerned that they could lose a key star, with Wijnaldum eventually signing for PSG on a free-transfer. But the 30-year-old has admitted, in a recent interview, that he “had expressed the desire to stay in Liverpool” but that wasn’t reciprocated by the Anfield side. And since that was the case, Wijnaldum added that he had to move on.Â
"Several months ago, I had expressed the desire to stay in Liverpool but, without going into details, Liverpool did not give me the feeling of wanting to keep me. In these cases, we have to move forward,” Wijnaldum told L’Equipe.
While Georginio Wijnaldum did sign for Paris Saint-Germain in the end, the Dutch midfielder was heavily linked with a move to Barcelona and even, reportedly, came to an agreement over personal terms with the La Liga giants. However, reports indicated that issues over a medical and a better salary packet from PSG swayed Wijnaldum in the end. But the midfielder has cleared the air and revealed that negotiations with Barcelona took a long time, which allowed PSG to sneak in and they showed him their desire to sign him.
"Barcelona came. I was really happy because, since I was a child, as for the majority of Dutch players, it was the club of my dreams even if I must admit that my idol was Zinedine Zidane. I had a good idea to commit to Barca. But the negotiations lasted a very long time and Paris came in. Unlike six years earlier, the club showed me their desire to recruit me. It was time for me to have something else,” he added.
