I once tried to sign Tottenham star Eriksen – Klopp

Joe Williams

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has revealed that he once tried to sign Tottenham midfielder Christian Eriksen while he was in charge of Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund.

The German was looking for replacements for Mario Gotze in 2013 when he left the Westfalenstadion for arch-rivals Bayern Munich.

Eriksen was playing for Ajax at the time but moved to White Hart Lane in the summer of 2013 after the north London side sold Gareth Bale to Real Madrid.

Klopp, who still rates Eriksen as a very good player, claims he had to choose between current Manchester United player Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Kevin de Bruyne and the Dane.

“When I was in Dortmund we were very interested in Eriksen, but we had to choose between him Mkhitaryan and De Bruyne,” Klopp 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 Mkhitariyan, 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.

“Would I try and buy him now? No, we would not act in that way towards Tottenham.”