Liverpool wanted to sign Alex Teixeira in a bid to create an all-Brazilian attack, but did they dodge a bullet back in 2016?
Jurgen Klopp has managed to create one of the best forward lines that Liverpool has ever seen, but it could have all been so different.
Back in 2016, Shakhtar Donetsk had a player who wanted to leave and the Reds had some cash burning a hole in their pocket. So they turned their attention to Alex Teixeira, wrote the Echo.
In January of that year, the Ukrainian side made their Brazilian star available for £38 million. He had scored 89 goals in 222 games for Donetsk as well as creating 25 others and it looked like he’d be the perfect fit for Liverpool.
But that price wasn’t one that was worth paying, thought Klopp and the rest of the Anfield top brass, and so the forward went to Jiangsu Suning instead.
That’s a pretty unusual career path for someone who was 26-years-old at the time and appeared to have the rest of Europe at his feet.
Teixeira had an excellent record in Ukraine and could have gone on to play for a top tier club in one of the top five European leagues, and progress his career that way.
More from Rush The Kop
- Set to return, Virgil Van Dijk facing heavy criticism back home
- Liverpool making late comebacks all the rage once again
- Wolves tilt gives Klopp opportunity to tinker with lineup following international duty
- Players to watch in the matchup with Wolves
- Predicting Liverpool’s Next Five Premier League Fixtures
Had the Brazilian not been able to secure a move to a big hitter straight away, a few years of good performances for someone further down the food chain would have loosened wallets.
We’ve seen it all before, and it’s normally a path those with serious ambition take.
It’s a path someone with the right mentality to play for Liverpool would have taken.
But it doesn’t look like Teixeira is one of those players. His move to China pretty much denied any international ambitions he had – the man still has zero caps for Brazil – and put an end to his participation in the Champions League.
Competing against Europe’s best, for serious professionals, is normally one of their career goals. But Alex Teixeira turned his back on that for money.
On second thoughts, maybe Liverpool dodged a bullet with this one.