Jürgen Klopp has revealed he had tried to sign Christian Eriksen during his time at Borussia Dortmund. Eriksen joined Tottenham from Ajax for a reported fee of £11.5m.
Klopp was searching a suitable replacement of Mario Götze who decided to switch his allegiance to fierce rival Bayern Munich. The German gaffer had identified Eriksen, Kevin De Bruyne and Henrikh Mkhitaryan to replace the midfielder and ended up signing the Armenian playmaker for a fee of €27.5m from Shakhtar Donetsk in 2013. Mkhitaryan’s brilliance in the Bundesliga earned him a move to Manchester United last summer.
The attacking midfielder has been crucial to Spurs’ rise this season having netted seven goals and setting up another eleven. Klopp revealed that he was keen to sign the player as any coach would love to have him in his team.
He said, “Christian Eriksen is a great player. Everyone would love to have him on their team.
“At that time we had three players we went after — Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Kevin De Bruyne and Christian Eriksen.
“We scouted all three very intensely, but we knew we could only get one. We were happy to get Mkhitaryan. Since then, Christian Eriksen has taken a great step at Tottenham. He’s very strong.”
