After two disastrous mistakes cost Liverpool the Champions League in 2018, it seemed inevitable that Karius would be replaced that summer.
Ultimately, Liverpool settled the position by signing Alisson from Roma for £67 million, two months after that night in Kiev.
However, this completely caught Karius off guard as the German thought he would remain the Reds’ first-choice goalkeeper.
Speaking with the Independentthe now 32-year-old remembers: “The conversation was that I will start again in the new season.
“It surprised me a bit. I just read it in the news.
“No one has told me before that they signed or spoke to me, but I guess that’s football.
“When I asked why no one informed me, they said they can’t notify 30 players every time we sign a player in their position.
“There’s no bad blood or anything. Alisson has done a fantastic job to this day. He’s a great goalkeeper, but if they had planned this from the start, maybe someone could have informed me a little earlier.”
“It surprised me a little bit. I just read it in the news. No one told me before that they were signing or talking to me.”
After the Champions League final, subsequent mistakes in preparation confirmed to the fans that he could not be Liverpool’s shot-stopper, but he received a supportive greeting from the supporters in a friendly against Torino at Anfield.
A few weeks later, Karius was loaned to Besiktas for two years, but his time in Turkiye was cut short by a season and he instead spent the 2020/21 season at Union Berlin, making just five appearances.
Loris Karius’ ‘retirement’ and the road to redemption
With his contract at Liverpool expiring, Karius was without a club and was not interested in the options that presented themselves.
“I retired because I did nothing for seven months,” he says.
“It sounds dramatic. In my mind I was pretty much retired. It wasn’t the worst six months.”
“I still had a good time. I spent a lot of time with my family, I traveled a lot, a lot of things that you normally don’t get to do when you’re in your daily routine.
“Of course I still wanted to play football, but I didn’t want to do anything that I wasn’t 100 percent behind.”
That was until Newcastle called at the end of 2022. He made two appearances for the Magpies, one of those appearances at Wembley in the Carabao Cup for Newcastle’s first grand final since 1999.
After his two-year spell in the North East, he was again without a club until joining Schalke last January.
With the former giants facing possible relegation to the German third division, he made four appearances as they stayed afloat.
This time Karius was an integral part of the team that now tops the Bundesliga 2. He started all eighteen league matches and only conceded ten goals.
He added: “There have been times when confidence has been lower. Now confidence is clearly very high.”
His redemption is a great story for a goalkeeper who was castigated for his mistakes. It’s always worth remembering that he may have been concussed by Sergio Ramos.
At 32, he still has plenty of time to return to the top level, especially if promotion to the Bundesliga in May goes to plan.
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