Two and a half years have passed since Liverpool secured the signing of Thiago from Bayern Munich, and now the Spaniard has revealed the main motive for his “big decision” to leave Germany.
The move was made right after Thiago won the Champions League with the Bavarians and Liverpool won the Premier League under Jurgen Klopp.
At the time, Thiago had one year left on his contract with Bayern, and it was initially expected that he would extend his stay at the club, but stalled a new contract after it turned out that Liverpool were interested.
The deal was signed for an initial 20 million pounds, while the midfielder has established himself as one of the Reds’ key players in recent years.
Speaking during an appearance on BT Sport’s “What I Wore,” Thiago said he moved to Anfield to take on a new challenge and believes the opportunity to join the club represents “the perfect match.”
“It was an important decision,” he said.
“The German League is amazing, but we’ve won it for eight years in a row, so I said, ‘OK, come on, something more difficult.’
“The biggest at that moment and now is the Premier League.
“Which teams are the most iconic for me in the Premier League? Which of them has the best project, the best coach? Liverpool was perfect for that.
“I think it was a match from day one.”
As part of the show, Thiago was asked to choose a variety of his favorite football uniforms from his career, as he grew up watching his father play for Brazil before joining Barcelona’s La Masia academy in his youth.
Many expected him to stay at Camp Nou for most if not all of his career, but in 2013 he decided to follow Pep Guardiola to Bayern Munich.
“There were legends around me at that time,” he said when asked to explain why he left Barcelona.
“It was difficult for me to get the minutes I wanted to play.
“Guardiola has just left the club, he moved to Bayern. He called me there, and I said: “Why not?”
“The main strength was that I needed minutes. Bayern were the recent winners of the Champions League. It was a big challenge. They won it and I wanted to win it again.”
When asked to choose two of his favorite T-shirts, Thiago chose the iconic Brazilian T-shirt worn by his father when he won the World Cup in 1994, as well as one of the white away T-shirts when he played at Bayern.
To date, Thiago has won the League Cup, FA Cup and Community Shield with Liverpool. Let’s hope that in the coming years he will create many more memories in red!
