A selection of Liverpool Football Club-related stories and tidbits you may have missed over the past seven days…
Emre Can looks increasingly likely to have kicked his last ball for the club after being left out of the Germany squad for the World Cup in Russia. The midfielder, who is out of contract this summer and expected to join Juventus, has been out since March with a back problem but had hoped to recover sufficiently to be involved in the Champions League final on May 26.
Despite the injury and his contractual situation, the former Bayer Leverkusen man is with the rest of the first team squad at a training camp in Marbella. Discussing the decision to take his players to Spain, manager Jürgen Klopp told Liverpoolfc.com: “It’s about being together, having nothing else to do and not thinking about anything else – and then having a little rest. We have a few things to do. We have time to prepare for the game, which we want to do. We have time to recharge our batteries, and that’s what we’ll do. We’re in a very nice surrounding, but we’re not here because of the weather.”
Unsurprisingly tickets for the final against Real Madrid in Kiev have now sold out. The Reds received an allocation of 16,626 tickets from UEFA for the showpiece occasion at the 70,000-capacity NSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium and they’ve been snapped up quickly, despite costing upwards of £394 and supporters facing a host of travel and accommodation-related issues.
Some fans can however still get tickets to watch the game at a special screening at Anfield. Following unprecedented demand, a further 15,000 seats in the Anfield Road end and Kenny Dalglish Stand will be made available to fans who wish to soak up the atmosphere at the stadium. Find out more details here.
Official figures show Liverpool received almost £146m (£145,904,609) in revenue from the Premier League during the 2017/18 campaign. All top-flight clubs get £80.4m from domestic and international television deals, with the rest made up of facility fees and merit payments, based on how many times each team was shown on television and their final position in the table. Manchester United led the way with just under £150m (£149,767,145).
Mohamed Salah is in the running for yet another award after being shortlisted for the PFA Fans’ Player of the Year award. The 44-goal attacker is up against David de Gea (Manchester United), Kevin de Bruyne (Manchester City), Eden Hazard (Chelsea), Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur) and Raheem Sterling (Manchester City) for the prize and fans can vote for him here. The closing date is 8am BST on Monday May 21.
Salah’s boots will go on display within the world famous Egypt collection at the British Museum ahead of the Champions League final. The footwear has been donated to the museum to celebrate his Golden Boot award for finishing the domestic season as the Premier League’s top scorer.
Teenager Trent Alexander-Arnold has been talking about his delight at receiving a call-up to the senior England squad for the World Cup. “I’m honoured, excited and feeling really proud,” he revealed to the official website. “It was an unbelievable moment to find out I was going to go to the World Cup, especially at a young age. It’s probably capped off a really good season for me. I found out this morning, just before we came out to Marbella. The manager came and spoke to me just as we were getting on the plane. He asked me if I knew anything about the squad or anything yet. I said, ‘no’ and he said, ‘Have you got anything planned around the time of the World Cup?’ I was like, ‘No, no holidays or anything…’ He said to me, ‘OK, good… You’re in the squad!’ It was a really proud moment. On England’s behalf, it was nice of them to let the manager tell me.”
Roberto Firmino is another player with a World Cup to prepare for after being named in Brazil’s 23-man squad for the tournament. The Samba Stars are in Group E and face Switzerland (June 17), Costa Rica (June 22) and Serbia (June 27).
Former Liverpool coach Pep Lijnders has departed NEC Nijmegen after the Dutch side failed to gain promotion to the Eredivisie. Lijnders left his role on Merseyside to take over as head coach at NEC at the start of January, leading them to third in Holland’s Eerste Divisie to earn a play-off place. But there the club fell at the first hurdle with a two-legged defeat to Emmen.
Liverpool U23s rounded off their campaign with a 4-1 victory over Panjab FA in Monday’s end-of-season friendly at a sun-drenched Academy. Adam Lewis, trialist Angel, Herbie Kane and Bobby Adekanye were the players on target for the Premier League 2 runners-up.
Liverpool Ladies’ latest outing ended in disappointment though as they lost 3-0 to Reading FC Women at the Madejski Stadium on Saturday. The female Reds fell a goal behind in the Women’s Super League fixture after just four minutes and failed to find the levels they had shown in the 1-0 midweek win over Manchester City. LFC Ladies: Chamberlain, Murray, Harris, Greenwood, Bonner, Ingle, Longhurst (Turner, 58), Coombs, England, Weir, Charles (Clarke, 58).
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Liverpool OFF TO WIN
Liverpool OFF TO WIN