Lucas Leiva has revealed that he foresaw Jurgen Klopp doing one thing when he left the club in 2017 – overseeing a period of success at Liverpool.
The man who was signed by Rafa Benitez in 2007 for £5 million told LFCTV’s Extra Time: ‘When I left the club I was 100 per cent sure a great moment was coming.
‘You could feel [it]. I could feel that things were changing. I could feel that Liverpool were going to come back, winning important things.’
The former Gremio midfielder spent two years being tutored by Klopp before departing to join Lazio.
In total, he made 346 appearances for the Merseysiders, scoring seven goals and recording 21 assists while winning the League Cup in 2012.
Lucas started the former Borussia Dortmund manager’s first cup final as Liverpool boss, which came in the League Cup against Manchester City.
Sadly, the Reds lost on penalties, with Lucas missing his spot-kick.
Quite impressively in fact, Lucas actually experienced another final with Klopp, meaning Liverpool reached two showpiece events in the two years of the Brazilian and the German working together.
That came when Liverpool suffered defeat to Sevilla in the Europa League final, a match in which Lucas didn’t make it off the bench.
However, just by reaching two finals in Klopp’s first season – a campaign he didn’t even begin, having replaced Brendan Rodgers early on – you could tell trophies were on the horizon under the charismatic leader.
Lucas was smart enough to spot this, and his prediction has well and truly come true.
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