Alisson has haunted strikers ever since his world-record switch to Liverpool in 2018, and now has Europe’s finest in his sights again.The Samba shot-stopper tells FFT why the Reds are in no mood to repeat last season’s Champions League failings  – and how ignoring Jurgen Klopp can really pay off...

Words Felipe Rocha

 

The year is 2021, and you’ve been tasked with creating the perfect goalkeeper. In an ideal world, or if you just happen to be Bonnie Tyler, several attributes leap out at you like the refrain of a song.

He’s got to be strong. He’s got to be fast. He’s probably larger than life. You need a hero.

Not one borne of flashy egotism, but the reliable, focused type who always wants to put a shift in for his team-mates. The one who’s able to keep his head when others around him crumble quicker than a block of Caerphilly. Basically, you need Alisson Becker.

Let’s start with his honours: the Champions League, FIFA Club World Cup, UEFA Super Cup and Copa America in 2019, followed by the Premier League title in 2020. Then there are the individual prizes: FIFA Goalkeeper of the Year, Golden Glove gongs domestically and at international level, nominations for the Ballon d’Or and spots in back-to-back FIFPro World11s, alongside accolades from pretty much every major publication on the planet.

Some players simply find themselves in the right place at the right time to lift silverware. Far fewer can consider themselves natural winners who seem destined to gobble glory wherever they go.

FourFourTwo last caught up with Alisson in November 2018, just as Jurgen Klopp’s red machine was marauding towards European domination. “What’s life if not fighting for your dreams?” he pondered then. “I dream of winning the Champions League.” Within six months he had done just that, banishing Liverpool fans’ haunting memories of Loris Karius in the previous season’s showpiece defeat to Real Madrid.

Today, the Brazilian’s philosophical mood remains as we prepare to discuss this term’s Champions League campaign, following the Merseysiders’ miserable last-16 ousting by Atletico Madrid in 2019-20 – the second leg of which Alisson sat out with a hip problem. Injury niggles aside, such blips are about as frequent as a dodo sighting thanks to the custodian’s transformative effects at Anfield since arriving from Roma three years ago. Not that you will hear that from Alisson himself, whose humble manner and laid-back charm make for a man who may as well be talking to us draped on a chaise longue.

“Life is about fighting for your dreams,” he says. “You might change a dream or update it, but you must keep fighting for what makes you happy. In football, winning trophies is the main goal. Now I know the feeling of winning a Champions League final, and I want to feel it again and again.”

THE SAVE THAT SHOOK ANFIELD

In Liverpool’s recent history, though, success has been hard to attain and easy to lose. In 2020, the year they finally captured that first domestic crown for three decades, the Reds topped their Champions League group before being paired with two-time finalists Atletico in the opening knockout round. Prior to the first leg in Madrid, Diego Simeone’s side had won one of their previous six games and lost to third-tier Cultural Leonesa in the Copa del Rey. It made the 1-0 defeat, courtesy of Saul Niguez’s early goal, all the more galling.