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Jurgen Klopp gives emotional tribute to Roberto Firmino following Liverpool departure.
Jurgen Klopp, manager of Liverpool, has acknowledged that he would miss Roberto Firmino “as a human” as much as a footballer.
Firmino has said he will quit his eight-year tenure at Anfield when his contract with the Reds expires later this month.
The Brazilian departs after netting a late equalizer in his final home match, a 1-1 draw with Aston Villa, and then netting Liverpool’s second in their 4-4 season-ending tie against Southampton.
In an excerpt from Bobby, a farewell video that Liverpool plans to use to say goodbye to Firmino, manager Jurgen Klopp expresses how much he will miss the 31-year-old.
“He is so integral for everything what happened here in my time. I think he is still the player who started most games even when recently he didn’t start that often,” Klopp said.
“It’s just that I couldn’t imagine for a long, long time how our game would look without him. So, we had to find ways when he was not available and we came through these spells: Sadio [Mane] last year, for example, did exceptional, did that really well.
“But yes, as a person, as a human, as a boy, I will miss him. As a player we all will miss him, but anyway I think it’s the right way to part ways: very respectful, with tears in our eyes and with the knowledge that we will definitely miss each other because it will be the other way around the same.
“But we are professional football people and we have to part ways from time to time, it’s a completely normal thing. So, we will stay friends forever definitely, I will be grateful forever for everything he did for us, for me, and he will go down as one of the Liverpool greats.
“What can you wish more for in a footballer’s life than that?”
Firmino is free to speak with other teams about his future, and rumours out of Spain indicate that Real Madrid is interested in the attacker.