Alisson Likely to Wear Number 13 at Liverpool

If Loris Karius remains with the club this season, Liverpool’s new goalkeeper will take the vacant 13 shirt.

It’s not official yet, but the expectation is that when Liverpool kick off their Premier League season against West Ham on the 12th of August, Alisson will be wearing the number 13 shirt and Loris Karius will keep the number one.

This according to Brazil’s UOL, who say that unless Karius departs before next Sunday’s match, Liverpool’s new record goalkeeper signing will spend the season wearing 13 after Alisson decided not to push for a number swap.

There was some suggestion that was in the offing when the club announced him using the #AB1 hashtag on social media, but Alisson is said to avoid upsetting Karius by seeking to take his number along with the number one role.

Nothing will be made official, though, until the season starts as there remains a small chance that Karius could end up departing the club—though as of now there have been no serious, legitimate links made to other clubs.

Alisson completed his £66M move to Liverpool last month, setting a new record fee paid for a goalkeeper in the process—and UOL note it was Liverpool’s willingness to meet Roma’s asking price that helped convince him to make the switch.

The Brazilian outlet claim that Real Madrid had been trying to sign the goalkeeper earlier in the summer but hadn’t been willing to bid more than around €40M, a fee Roma considered insulting and that left Alisson “disillusioned.”

At that point, with Liverpool and Chelsea left as his main suitors, the decision to join the Champions League side managed by Jürgen Klopp was an easy one.

Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com