Jurgen Klopp, the Liverpool manager, walked into the club’s canteen the other day and found himself grinning at the convivial scene.
Darwin Nunez, Alexis Mac Allister, Luis Diaz and Alisson were all in conversation. “Uruguay, Argentina, Colombia and Brazil,” Klopp thought to himself, and, out loud, asked: “What’s the biggest newspaper in South America?” He reckoned it would make good use of a photo of the amiable grouping.
The same quartet flew back to England together from World Cup duty earlier this week with stories to share ahead of tomorrow’s Premier League summit meeting with Manchester City.
Emotional ones from Diaz, whose father was released from a terrifying kidnap ordeal in time to see his son put two goals past Alisson in Colombia’s 2-1 win over Brazil.