Liverpool have confirmed Fabian Otte as their new goalkeeping coach, and he is someone Jurgen Klopp has previously been “interested in”.
With goalkeeping coach John Achterberg gone to join Steven Gerrard in Saudi Arabia and his assistant Jack Robinson also gone, the Reds needed someone to fill the void left.
The man Liverpool have approached is 33-year-old Otte, a German who will join after the Copa America, where he is working with the US national team.
Otte is a figure who has raised eyebrows already in his young career, and former manager Klopp has earmarked his compatriot as early as 2021.
Otte spent the 2020/21 season as manager at Burnley before leaving for Borussia Monchengladbach.
He told Sky Sports that before Liverpool’s 3-0 win at Turf Moor that season, “Jurgen started smiling at him”.
Otte continued: “Obviously Jurgen Klopp is a big name, I’ve heard about him, read about him and watched him on TV for many years. I just waved my hand.
“When I got back to the dressing room, the kitman said: ‘Jurgen Klopp just asked about you. He said he read this article about you and was interested’.
“I talked to him for a while afterwards and he was such a cool person. It was a very interesting experience.
“This is the manager of Liverpool. He could have done a thousand better things than read about me, but he knew so many details.”
It’s a story that reveals just how personal Klopp is, but it also tells us that Otte has been on the club’s radar for some time.
In Slott’s first interview with LFC TV, he said: “If you bring in Fabian, who I didn’t know before, have conversations, meetings with him – along with Richard (Hughes, sporting director) – to bring in the best possible person we could find.
“And I think we succeeded in Fabijan’s situation.
“He is considered one of the most interesting goalkeeping coaches at the moment, and I felt that in the meetings we had.”
With more than nine years of coaching experience, he will work with seasoned Brazilian legend Claudio Taffarel to keep Alisson at top level and develop the Reds’ younger goalkeepers.
