{"id":5706,"date":"2023-06-09T12:27:59","date_gmt":"2023-06-09T07:27:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/?p=5706"},"modified":"2023-06-09T12:28:01","modified_gmt":"2023-06-09T07:28:01","slug":"liverpool-sign-argentine-world-cup-winner-mac-allister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/sports\/liverpool-sign-argentine-world-cup-winner-mac-allister\/","title":{"rendered":"Liverpool sign Argentine World Cup winner Mac Allister"},"content":{"rendered":"

London: Liverpool FC signed Argentine World Cup winner Alexis Mac Allister from Brighton on Thursday for a fee that could rise to a reported \u00a355 million ($69 million).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 24-year-old is the first piece in a midfield rebuild for Liverpool, who finished a disappointing fifth in the Premier League.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It feels amazing,” said Mac Allister, who is understood to have signed a five-year deal at Anfield. “It’s a dream come true. It’s amazing to be here and I can’t wait to get started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I wanted to be in from the first day of pre-season, so it’s good that everything is done. I’m looking forward to meeting my teammates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It was a fantastic year for me — World Cup, what we achieved with Brighton — but now it’s time to think about Liverpool and try to be a better player and a better human being every day.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp is seeking to bolster his midfield options after the departures of James Milner, Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The club were priced out of a move for England teenage star Jude Bellingham, who is set to join Real Madrid after the clubs agreed a fee of 103 million euros ($110 million).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Liverpool, who struggled last term after nearly completing an unprecedented quadruple in 2021\/22, have been criticised for failing to reinforce their ageing midfield over recent transfer windows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Klopp is excited about the arrival of Mac Allister, who reportedly cost an initial fee of \u00a335 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mac Allister will wear the number 10 shirt worn with distinction by past Liverpool stars Sadio Mane, John Barnes and Michael Owen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We are adding a very talented, very smart, very technically skilled boy to our squad and this is super news, really it is,” said the German.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I do not think the football world needs me to say too much about Alexis’s qualities because they are already pretty well known.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“But it is clear that he is someone who can play in a number of positions in the midfield and is an all-rounder, I would say. He is calm and composed and someone with proper game intelligence.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mac Allister, who made 112 appearances for Brighton, has played 16 times for Argentina, including in the World Cup final victory against France in December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Since I won the World Cup, I said that I want to win more trophies and I think that this club will help me to do that,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“That’s the aim and when you are in a big club like this one you have to win trophies. So, that’s what I want.”<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

London: Liverpool FC signed Argentine World Cup winner Alexis Mac Allister from Brighton on Thursday for a fee that could rise to a reported \u00a355 million ($69 million). The 24-year-old is the first piece in a midfield rebuild for Liverpool, who finished a disappointing fifth in the Premier League. “It feels amazing,” said Mac Allister, […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":5707,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[396,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5706"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}