After being rejected by Moises Caicedo and missing out on Romeo Rabia, Liverpool made a surprise reinforcement. They have added Japanese midfielder Wataru Endo to their squad from Stuttgart, who were also involved in the Bundesliga survival battle.
Despite captaining both the team and the national team, Endo’s 30 years of age had many skeptics, but the experience he gained in Germany, where he often had to fight physical battles, and his ability to deal with physicality allowed him to perform well in his first Premier League match.
Although he is still getting used to many aspects of the game, he is expected to play an active role at the bottom of the midfield.
Takumi Minamino, the Japan international who joined AS Monaco in the transfer market last summer, is a fellow player who spent two and a half years at Anfield.
Upon joining Liverpool, the Japan captain also kept in touch with the forward, who is exploding in his second season in France, and received his congratulations.
“Yes, I got in touch with him. We spoke on the phone and he congratulated me on joining the club.”
“We spoke about what Liverpool is like, and some things like that. He didn’t give me specific advice but said congratulations and that there were some Japanese staff in Liverpool as well.”
Matchday programme
The new club attracts stars from many countries, including Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk.
Among them, Endo revealed that he took his hat off to Brazilian goalkeeper Alisson Becker for her goalkeeping ability, saying that he is the one who can save the team.
“All the players have very high skills here and among them I think the goalkeeper Alisson is great.”
“I have played with a lot of ’keepers but his ability to stop shots is excellent. Of course, the forward players have very high skills and the other players are very skilful as well, but Alisson’s ability to stop shots is brilliant.”
“He saves the team from dangerous situations and he is very powerful.”
Matchday programme