Jurgen Klopp has confirmed that Liverpool did not instruct Virgil van Dijk to convince Cody Gakpo to sign on the dotted line.
Gakpo himself revealed that he had chats with Van Dijk about why moving to Anfield would be the perfect career move.
“We [Gakpo and Van Dijk] spoke a lot over the phone in the last few days.”
“What he told me was that this [Liverpool] is the right move for me to make and to develop and to become a better player, that the club is really big and massive club but also like a real family.”
“I think that’s also very important for me because I’m a family guy. He said only good things”, he told the club.
However, a fresh revelation suggests that the 23-year-old ultimately made up his own mind instead of simply adhering to the £220,000-a-week star’s advice.
Jurgen Klopp plays down the influence of Virgil van Dijk in Cody Gakpo deal
Ahead of Liverpool’s upcoming encounter against Leicester, Jurgen Klopp has said that the club did not request Virgil van Dijk to persuade Cody Gakpo to put pen to paper.
“Before he [Cody Gakpo] technically signed, yes [Virgil van Dijk had a word with him].”
“Virg was involved from a specific moment on but we didn’t tell him [to] talk to him because there was no reason for it. When I was allowed to speak to him, I spoke to him.”
“Some of these nice moments as Liverpool FC manager when you think you have to convince somebody and you realise when you talk, ‘Oh, the door is wide open.’
“So, this is more or less a home run and it was cool. We didn’t need Virgil to convince him but after that, obviously Virgil likes to be involved in these kinds of things”, he said (via Football Daily).
Jurgen Klopp makes perfect sense in his explanation, as most players in the world including Cody Gakpo do not need much convincing from their national teammates like Virgil van Dijk to join a club of the stature of Liverpool.
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