Liverpool’s Melwood training ground will be a slightly lonelier place for Mo Salah for the foreseeable future as Jurgen Klopp has agreed to sell the Egyptian’s ‘best friend’ Dejan Lovren to Russian club Zenit St. Petersburg.
Croatian World Cup finalist Lovren, 31, has inked a three-year deal with the Russian Premier League side for a reported fee of £10.9 million ($14 million) to bring his six-year stint at Liverpool to a close.
He made 131 appearances for the Reds during that time but featured in just 10 Premier League games this season after falling behind the likes of Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez and Joel Matip in the Anfield pecking order.
Dejan Lovren is a Zenit player! ?More ➡️ https://t.co/bf7ILb2BOGpic.twitter.com/MnFZF5pXJZ
Lovren’s spell at the club will no doubt be remembered for helping the club to win their first Premier League crown this season, as well as last season’s Champions League trophy, but there is another concern among the Anfield hierarchy when it comes to the Croat’s departure: how will this affect Mo Salah?
Salah and Lovren were known to be incredibly close in the Anfield dressing room, frequently spending time with one another outside of official club duties – and Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp is concerned about any impact the loss of his best mate will have on the Egyptian talisman.
? Jurgen Klopp on Dejan Lovren’s departure:”Who is now the best friend of Mo [Salah]? Because they were real, real bezzies.”? pic.twitter.com/f3jBtDbkEM
OFFICIAL: Dejan Lovren has left Liverpool for Zenit.The end of a bromance ? pic.twitter.com/IHxfv0q7ai
“Who is now the best friend of Mo [Salah]?” Klopp was quoted as saying by reporters. “Because they were real, real bezzies [best friends].”
Meanwhile, another publication described the severed relationship as “the end of a bromance.”
Zenit, meanwhile, were the runaway winners of the Russian top flight, finishing 15 points ahead of second-placed Lokomotiv Moscow, meaning that Salah and Lovren could once again be acquainted with one another should their two team be drawn against one another in next season’s Champions League.
Another, admittedly far less likely scenario could be that such is Lovren’s pull over Salah that he engineers a move for the African maestro to the Russian league to join him in St. Petersburg – though it is likely something that the remaining 15 teams in the division wouldn’t be so enthusiastic about.
