Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has confirmed that star attacker Xherdan Shaqiri will not be making the trip to Serbia for the Champions League encounter against Red Star Belgrade on Tuesday night.
There was some tension growing between Swiss international Shaqiri regarding his decision to be involved in Serbia against Red Star Belgrade on Tuesday. However, Liverpool has decided that the 27-year-old midfielder will remain at Merseyside and will not travel for the away fixture in the Champions League to Belgrade.
Born in Kosovo, Shaqiri has never been shy of hiding the pride in his heritage as he wears the Kosovar flag on his boots while playing for the Swiss international team. The Liverpool winger caused outrage during the FIFA World Cup when Switzerland faced Serbia as he gestured the Albanian eagle with his hands after scoring a late winner which provoked an angry reaction from the Serbian fans.
The game Liverpool face against Red Star Belgrade will be held in Serbia and most of the Serbs still view Kosovo as part of their territory even after the declaration of independence over a decade ago following a bloody war against largely Serbian forces in the late 1990’s.
There was news which stated that Shaqiri would be receiving a hostile environment from the home crowd and Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp confirmed that he would not be traveling to Belgrade with the rest of the squad for the Champions League encounter.
While speaking to the official Liverpool website, the German boss said, “We have heard and read the speculation and talk about what kind of reception Shaq would receive and although we have no idea what would happen, we want to go there and be focused 100 percent on football and not have to think about anything else, that’s all. We are Liverpool FC, a big club, a football team but we don’t have any message further than that. We have no political message, absolutely not. We want the focus to be on a great game of football, free from anything else.”
It’s really depressing to see that politics still interfere between football matches but Liverpool is doing the right thing by keeping Shaqiri safe first and foremost.
