Liverpool-linked Gotze announces decision to leave Dortmund

Liverpool-linked Mario Gotze has announced that he will be leaving Borussia Dortmund at the end of the season.

The attacking midfielder will become a free agent in the summer and his former manager Jurgen Klopp is known to be an admirer.

He tried to sign the Germany international when he rejoined his current employers from Bayern Munich in 2016 and there has been speculation over the last couple of years that he could join up with Klopp at Liverpool.

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Gotze also announced that International Soccer Management’s Reza Fazeli will be his new agent with West Ham and Everton also linked with the German.

Gotze said (via the Evening Standard): “First of all, I hope according to the circumstances that you and your loved ones are doing well in the present situation.

“Today I would like to announce that after intensive consideration, I have decided to make a change in the planning of my career. I have consciously taken my time over this step.

“It is an important decision for my sporting future and I am very much looking forward to working with Reza Fazeli and his agency International Soccer Management (ISM), whose professional competence has absolutely convinced me.

“What the sporting future will bring will only become apparent when a little normality has returned to the world.

“Until then, please stay healthy and support society as much as you can.”

On speculation he could join up with Klopp at Liverpool, Gotze told DAZN in January: “I’m still in touch with Jurgen. At that time, I was just 17 and coming up from the youth team.

“He taught me everything about professional football. He let me play. I often speak to Klopp. We never stopped talking.

“He knows me very well and that I am always looking for new challenges.”

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