He was once a high-spirited and talented goalkeeper, and he also caused the bitter fruit of mistakes in the Champions League final. In recent years, he has drifted around in several leagues on loan... He has never appeared in the sights of mainstream leagues, but it seems that he has never been keep away.
In yesterday's League Cup final, he suddenly appeared as Newcastle's starting goalkeeper, and it has been 728 days since his last official game.
He is Karius. A young man who was at his peak when he debuted, at the age of 29, he used the highlight performance of 8 saves in the audience, telling the story of his sinking five years.
Debut is the pinnacle
On June 22, 1993, Karius was born in Biberach am Rees, Germany. Born in a middle-class family that loves sports, Karius has many choices. His father wanted him to be an off-road driver, and his grandfather wanted him to be a football player. In the end, the grandparent and grandson smiled at each other, walked around the racing car dealership, and walked onto the green field.
There seems to be nothing wrong with this choice. Whether in Ulm or in the Stuttgart youth academy, Karius is the goalkeeper of the team. In 2008, Karius was selected for the German U16 national team. A year later, he received an olive branch from Manchester City. Although the young Karius did not get the chance to make his debut at the Etihad Stadium, his youth training teammates said, "He is an active, confident and very good goalkeeper."
Manchester City considered that such a good seed cannot continue to waste time in the youth academy, so they sent him to Mainz in the Bundesliga with a lease. Due to his outstanding performance in the reserve team, Mainz made a decision after five months on loan: sign Karius permanently at a price of 150,000 pounds.
Under the leadership of reserve team coach Schmidt, Karius has grown rapidly.
In the 2011-12 season, Karius was promoted to the first team by Tuchel.
In the 2012-13 season, Tuchel signed him up in the Bundesliga and officially became the team's third goalkeeper.
We all know that the No. 3 goalkeeper has no chance to play or cheer for the leader of the team in most teams. and.
Coincidentally, Karius got such an opportunity.
On December 1, 2012, the No. 1 goalkeeper of Mainz was injured with a red card and the No. 2 goalkeeper was injured. As a three-door Karius, he entered the Bundesliga stage. On the day of his debut, he was 19 years, 5 months and 9 days old, setting the record for the youngest goalkeeper in the Bundesliga.
Although Karius did not secure his main position under Tuchel, in November 2013, the same drama was staged again. In the game against Augsburg, Mainz's No. 1 goalkeeper Wittkelo received a red card, No. 2 goalkeeper Müller was injured, and it was time for Karius to perform again.
And after standing on the C position this time, Karius didn't come down again. In the 2014-15 season, he played 33 games on behalf of Mainz and kept a clean sheet in 11 games. In the 2015-16 season, he played 34 Bundesliga games and conceded 42 goals. Only Bayern Munich, Dortmund and Leverkusen conceded fewer goals than Mainz that season.
At that time, Karius was quick and decisive. Although he had occasional nerves, he was already an absolute star of the future. Such performance has also attracted the attention of many wealthy families. In May 2016, Klopp, an old friend of the people of Mainz, returned to his hometown to poach the wall, and he took a fancy to Karius at a glance.
So, Liverpool threw out a check and signed him for 4.7 million pounds.
super super huge mistake
On September 21, 2016, Karius made his Liverpool debut in the English League Cup. Three days later, he made his Premier League debut at home against Hull City. The good news is that the successive debuts have shown Uncle Zha's trust; the bad news is that this trust only lasted for three months.
Against Bournemouth on December 12, Karius missed the ball at the last moment, causing Liverpool to be reversed by Bournemouth 4-3. Then against West Ham United, Karius first misjudged Payet's free kick, and then was shot by the opponent when he attacked, losing all face.
Since then, Karius has lost his main position and can only play in cup games. Even so, fans often can't help but think of him. Because the three goalkeepers of Liverpool at that time were probably like this: Karius felt that every goal he conceded had little to do with him, but he just couldn't keep a clean sheet; Ward was dedicated to the cup and contributed all his stability to Penalty saves; Mignolet's goal line skills are not bad, but when it comes to corner kicks, his role is almost like a scarecrow.
Yes, this is a team where even the No. 3 goalkeeper can threaten the No. 1 goalkeeper, so Liverpool fans gave this evaluation in despair:
——Looking at Mignolet, it is a collection of goalkeeper's mistakes.
——Looking at Karius, it is a collection of mistakes made by a handsome goalkeeper.
However, Karius gradually gained the upper hand in Klopp's mind. After all, Mignolet's passing is poor, which is completely inconsistent with Klopp's philosophy of wanting to attack from the goalkeeper.
Therefore, in the middle of the 2017-18 season, Karius returned to the main position. Then, in his 17 starts at home in the Premier League, Liverpool are unbeaten. In this case, no one will change the goalkeeper halfway, so the time will naturally come to May 27, 2018-Liverpool vs Real Madrid, the Champions League final.
If you watch a lot of football games, you will find that every goalkeeper has his own pillar of shame. For example, Barthez's butter hand, Hart's mistake, Seaman in the 2002 World Cup, and Karius nailed himself to the top of the column of shame in the first Champions League final in his life.
A 24-year-old young goalkeeper, a precious opportunity to fight for the top of Europe, the simplest throw of the ball, encountered a completely symbolic kick to block the ball, the ball was blocked, the ball bounced, and even all players and fans , The broadcast camera didn't have time to keep up, and the ball rolled into the gate leisurely.
What's even more frightening is that there is still room for improvement in Karius' pillar of shame. In the second half, Bell's long-range shot hit his palm, but the ball flew out of his hands and flew into the goal...
In this way, due to various coincidences and bizarre factors, only a bunch of flying chicken feathers remained in that Liverpool team. After the game, the scene of Karius crying bitterly made people unable to calm down for a long time. However, tears could not extinguish the dissatisfaction of Liverpool fans. His social network was filled with all kinds of wanton abuse, and even his family members received death threats.
Four days after the final, Klopp got a call from Beckenbauer.
"Hey, Jurgen. About that final, you'd better get Karius checked, he probably had a concussion in the collision with Ramos."
At Beckenbauer's suggestion, Karius visited two medical experts at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Brain scans revealed that Karius had a visuospatial impairment, which may have prevented him from judging the location of objects. "One week into the game, he still has 26 concussion marks," Klopp said. "He was 100 per cent affected by the impact."
Liverpool quickly made the test results public and gave Karius as much psychological and emotional support as possible. "We're going to have a fresh start," Klopp told Karius.
This was an opportunity to rewrite the story, but everyone soon discovered that when Karius stepped onto the field, his heart trembled...
In a pre-season game against Chester, he allowed a weak shot to slip through his legs. Against Tranmere three days later, he let go of a free-kick to allow the opponent to easily score. Tranmere player Ben Torit, who scored the goal, ran up to Karius as he celebrated the goal, yelling constantly. Later, according to the interpretation of the lips of the "Mirror", what Torit said was: "Your fucking is a pile of shit!"
No way, Ben Torit is a die-hard Liverpool fan. His whole family is Liverpool season ticket holders. He also bought tickets to go to the Champions League final to cheer for Liverpool, and then watched Karius make a low-level move mistake.
During that time, Karius’ mental collapse was visible to the naked eye, and more intuitive statistics show that he made more mistakes in the last 4 games he played for Liverpool (3 times) than in the previous 45 games (2 times) .
Indeed, his mistakes in the Champions League final came from a concussion, but his subsequent mistakes all came from demons.
Finally, Klopp lost faith in him.
Two months after the Champions League final, Liverpool signed Alisson.
A month later, Karius joined Besiktas on loan.
Karius the Unforgettable
No matter what the field, history is relentless. People have always been willing to write biographies for the successful, but the losers are often silent—not heard, not noticed, not remembered.
Likewise, that runner-up Liverpool was quickly forgotten. Brackets, except Karius.
"Super super huge" and "Let me see which goalkeeper made a mistake again" have become special stalks for Karius. Although we all know later that this is a problem of Benzema , but Ur Reich, Mendy, Donnarumma... As long as there is a goalkeeper who chooses to go crazy amidst the glow and heat, Karius will be pulled out immediately to flog the corpse.
This is true both at home and abroad. Even if he went to Turkey on loan, the interviews of various reporters must be called the Champions League final. And his lifestyle on ins has aggravated the abuse of fans.
All this is too cruel for a 24-year-old young man. Thus, we saw the further sinking of Karius.
In Besiktas, Karius' expected goal ratio was -2.8 and -3.6 in the two seasons, indicating that he has some balls that should be saved but not saved.
And in the Europa League match against Malmo, Karius made a miraculous mistake—the opponent made a far-off zero-degree pass, passed over his head, and flew into the gate...
After that game, coach Koness publicly questioned Karius' mentality. And Karius also complained to FIFA that Besiktas had not paid his salary for 4 months.
After going back and forth, Tu Chao couldn't stay any longer.
In the summer of 2020, Karius returned to Liverpool, which already has Alisson, Kelleher and Adrian. So he could only be loaned to Union Berlin and played 5 poor games.
In the summer of 2021, Karius returned to Liverpool, and he found himself behind not only Alisson, Kelleher and Adrian, but also behind young Brazilian goalkeeper Pitaluga. He trained hard and wanted to start again, but as the team's fifth goalkeeper, the club didn't even give him an entry qualification.
In the past few years, for Liverpool fans, Karius has been a worthless passer-by who comes back every year for the summer vacation. Every year in the preseason, he will bring everyone back to the Kiev tragedy, and tell everyone by the way, "I still don't know." Here, I didn’t expect it.”…
Finally, after a year of no loan, no sign-ups, he was literally in Liverpool and you couldn't see him, Karius' contract was up.
In July 2022, Karius becomes a free agent.
After being out of work for two months, Newcastle, which suddenly had a goalkeeper shortage, urgently issued a recruitment notice-need to complete the signing within 48 hours to meet the Premier League registration deadline.
As a result, Karius applied and became a short-term worker for Newcastle.
Most of the time, Karius is Newcastle's third or fourth goalkeeper. He has not appeared in any matchday lineup since November 2022. However, just like his debut in Mainz, a A magical opportunity hit him again.
Before the Carabao Cup final between Newcastle and Manchester United, No. 1 goalkeeper Pope received a red card suspension against Liverpool. No. 2 goalkeeper Dubravka lost his eligibility because he had loaned Manchester United and played twice. No. 3 goalkeeper Caldaro Was loaned to Hull City, the fourth goalkeeper Gillespie only played 3 times for the team in 3 years...
Coach Eddie Howe looked around and realized that Karius was the only one who could be entrusted with important tasks in this field.
So Eddie Howe told the media.
"For Karius, this is a great opportunity to rewrite his career."
"He's ready."
Come on, then.
26 February 2023, Wembley Stadium.
Karius stood in front of Newcastle as the starting goalkeeper. It has been 728 days since he last participated in an official game...
Although the team eventually lost the game, Karius blocked Manchester United's shots again and again, and finally got the team's highest score with 8 saves.
After the game, Eddie Howe said, "Maybe Karius' career has opened another story. The next page or another chapter, who knows what it will be like? This is the charm of football."
In the world of football, Karius is not an inspirational story.
From the beginning to the end, he was an ordinary person who suffered setbacks and was trapped by demons. In a short period of time, he went from high-spirited to depressed, and then a group of people were discussing him.
So, five years passed in a long and hasty time, until today, he returned to the fans.
Fortunately, 29 is not an age of no return.
At least, he finally had a chance to see the sun again, reconcile with himself, and bid farewell to the past.
So keep going, Karius.
You can't see the four seasons on the bottom of the sea, but you can see them in the world.
