Fabrizio De Vecchi, agent of Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson Becker, has revealed to AS that he almost moved to Real Madrid.
In 2018, Alisson came to Liverpool, replacing the highly questionable Simon Mignolet and Loris Karius. Within two seasons, the Brazilian stopper won the Champions League and the Premier League with the Reds.
Alisson is one of the main men credited with turning Liverpool’s fortunes around, and elevating them to the next level needed to win major honours. But things could have turned out so differently had he instead made the move to Madrid.
Speaking to Spanish outlet AS, De Vecchi claimed that his client almost went to the Bernabeu in 2018 before his transfer to Jurgen Klopp’s side.
“It will seem strange, but I have a lot of affection for a signing that in the end could not be: that of Alisson to Real Madrid,” he said. “The goalkeeper was already playing for Roma, where Walter Sabatini took him, and Ernesto Bronzetti, my mentor, had recently died.
“I would have loved to close that operation: the truth is that I was very close to achieving it. Everyone knows that Ernesto carried out many operations between Giallorossi and Madrid: it would have been a nice way to remember him.”
Of course, as we know, Alisson went to Liverpool instead and established himself as one of the world’s very best goalkeepers. In fact, he is still yet to lose a game at Anfield since the Champions League semi-final in 2018, when he was playing for visitors Roma.
Having missed out on the Brazilian, Madrid opted for Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois. The Belgian has had a good two years at Los Blancos, ousting Keylor Navas from the starting XI and later winning the title.
