FSG’s chief executive of football, Michael Edwards, has made another appointment to his team as part of Liverpool’s restructuring following Jurgen Klopp’s departure.
Since returning to work at FSG, former sporting director Edwards has made a number of Liverpool-related appointments.
The latest new position to be created is for Hans Leitert to become head of global goalkeeping, according to Paul Joyce of The Times.
The journalist wrote: “One of Leitert’s first tasks for FSG will be to identify, recruit and appoint a new head goalkeeping coach for Liverpool following the departure of John Achterberg.
Achterberg will join Steven Gerrard at Al-Ettifaq after 15 years at Liverpool. Meanwhile, assistant goalie coach Jack Robinson is also leaving this summer.
One coach who remains, however, is legendary Brazilian goalkeeper Claudio Taffarel, who is a key part of the coaching staff from November 2021.
As for the playing squad, Alisson is happy to continue at Anfield, but Caoimhin Kelleher has recently reiterated his ambition to be first choice, be it at Liverpool or elsewhere.
Adrian is expected to leave this summer as well, after he told Movistar Plus+ that he “would like to return to La Liga after 11 seasons in the Premier League”.
Who is Hans Leitert?
Aged 51, Edwards appointed Leitert after working as a freelance goalkeeping consultant for Liverpool for the past six years.
From 2005 to 2009, he worked as a first-team goalkeeper coach at Panathinaikos, Recreativo de Huelva and Tottenham, before moving on to senior roles at UEFA, FIFA and Red Bull Global Soccer.
In February 2018, Klopp spoke about the Austrian saying his role involved “giving advice to the scouting department, nothing else. It’s not like he makes any decisions, he can’t.”
Klopp said then: “We have other people for the head of scouting. But he (Leitert) brings all the information he can get, that’s all.
“We have people for Germany, we have people for Austria, we have people for every country. And we have goalkeeper people in all these countries – and Hans is that guy.”
Among Leitert’s notable achievements is the fact that he wrote the book The Art of Goalkeeping or The Seven Principles of the Master.
