Football
Glenn Price, Liverpool correspondent 7y

Jurgen Klopp: I nearly signed Christian Eriksen for Borussia Dortmund

Jurgen Klopp has told Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet that he once looked into signing Tottenham Hotspur's Christian Eriksen during his time managing Borussia Dortmund.

The now-Liverpool boss was scouting a replacement for Bayern Munich-bound Mario Gotze in the summer of 2013 and targeted Eriksen, then of Ajax, as well as Kevin De Bruyne and Henrikh Mkhitaryan.

Dortmund eventually settled on a €27.5 million deal for Mkhitaryan with Shakhtar Donetsk in July 2013, with Eriksen joining Tottenham for £11.5m a month later.

"Christian Eriksen is a great player. Everyone would love to have him on their team," Klopp said. "At that time we had three players we went after -- Henrikh Mkhitaryan, 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."

The Denmark international has made 33 appearances for Mauricio Pochettino's Tottenham side this season, scoring seven goals and providing 11 assists.

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