Everton Player Reveals Just How Close He Was To Joining Liverpool

Everton goalkeeper Asmir Begovic has admitted he was ‘very close’ to joining Liverpool from Stoke City in 2013.

The Reds were in a precarious situation, looking to replace long-term stopper Pepe Reina after eight years with the club.

Liverpool chose Simon Mignolet eventually, but on TalkSport the Bosnia & Herzegovina international claimed he was ‘very close’ to joining his now Merseyside rivals.

Begovic began his career with Portsmouth in English football, making his breakthrough in the club’s final season in the Premier League to date in 2009 before signing for Stoke, where he made his name.

In 2013, both were decent Premier League goalkeepers, but Mignolet’s save numbers with Sunderland were a particular standout.

However, it was the contract situation which really persuaded Brendan Rodgers to sign the Belgian over Begovic.

“The main one was Liverpool, it was between me and Mignolet at the time,” said Begovic

“At Stoke I was still under contract for three or four years so they wanted too much money and Mignolet only had one year left and he was a good deal for them, that was a close one.”

He would subsequently spend several more years at the Britannia Stadium before joining Chelsea, and has since spent time with Bournemouth before joining Everton last summer.

Mignolet was solid in his time at Anfield but always had a sloppy error in him, and was replaced by the even more prone Lorius Karius.

The Belgian did win a UEFA Champions League medal with the Reds in 2019, however, and was runner-up the year before.

He left to sign for Club Brugge after leaving the Reds, winning three Belgian Pro League titles and playing 35 times for Belgium.

Alisson Becker was then brought in for £67m, and is thought to be at the very top echelon of goalkeepers in world football and in Liverpool history.

Despite Begovic nearly becoming a Liverpool player, it's fair to say that the path that leads to Alisson cannot be a bad one, so many wouldn’t have swapped him for Mignolet if time were to reoccur.