Roberto Firmino is set to leave Liverpool on a free transfer this summer after deciding not to extend his highly successful, and influential, Anfield career.
The Brazil international, signed for £29m from Hoffenheim in 2015, is one of several Liverpool first-team players out of contract at the end of the season.
Jürgen Klopp had wanted to retain a player who has been instrumental in Liverpool’s revival and was in excellent form before a calf injury interrupted his campaign in November. Firmino, however, has informed Klopp he will not be signing an extension and will be seeking a fresh start in the summer.
The 31-year-old has scored 107 goals in 353 appearances for Liverpool but his influence on Klopp’s team cannot be measured by statistics alone. Having been restored to centre-forward by Klopp, Firmino formed part of a superb attacking trio with Sadio Mané, who departed for Bayern Munich last summer, and Mohamed Salah. Together they helped Liverpool win a first league championship for 30 years in 2020, the Champions League in 2019, the Club World Cup that same year, plus the FA Cup and League Cup double last season.
Liverpool have overhauled their attacking options with the signings of Luis Díaz, Darwin Núñez and Cody Gakpo over the past 14 months but Firmino’s decision to leave represents a blow to Klopp.
As he prepared for Manchester United’s visit on Sunday Klopp claimed that Marcus Rashford’s return to “world-class” form this season has brought satisfaction even to him. He said: “It is difficult, pretty much impossible, to be happy about something positive at Man United when you are the Liverpool manager for seven and a half years. It is not as if I watch them and hope they win but I am really happy for Rashford.
“He had a really difficult last year when he was obviously not performing at the level he is able to perform but now he is playing incredible; his speed, his technique, how calm he is in front of goal, he scores worldies, he scores the simple ones, he puts his head in. We played before against world-class offensive players and if you try to do that in a one-on-one situation you will be on the wrong end of it so we have to defend it collectively.”
