Naby Keita To Get Steven Gerrard's Infamous Number Eight Shirt

Liverpool fans were already excited to see Naby Keita join Jurgen Klopp's side but their excitement levels might be reaching peak soon enough with the midfielder choosing to take Steven Gerrard's old number.

Last summer Jurgen Klopp was desperate to add Naby Keita to his squad for the season but RB Leipzig, in the Champions League for the first time, were desperate to keep hold of the midfielder for a year so wouldn't sell him.

In the end the Premier League side came to an agreement to sign Keita the next summer, and now he's actually going to become a Liverpool player next week when the transfer window opens.

Naby Keita will slot nicely into Liverpool's midfield. Image: PA Images

The Guinean midfielder arrives on a £53 million deal and will add to an ever improving midfield which will be hoping to improve on the fourth place finish in the Premier League last season.

Keita will have a lot of pressure on his shoulders after a season of getting better in reputation whilst not being with the team and, according to the Daily Mail, is set to heap more pressure on himself by taking Steven Gerrard's infamous number eight shirt.

Keita has been wearing number eight for Leipzig in the Bundesliga prior to his move to Anfield so taking the number makes a lot of sense but the addition of it previously being Gerrard's number adds to the intrigue.

The 23 year old first indicated last summer, when he signed the pre contract agreement with Klopp's side, that he would like to take the number eight and registered the 'NK8' brand name with companies house.

Gerrard wore number 28 when he first came into the team, then took the 17 shirt and then moved to eight in 2004, taking over from Emile Heskey, and wore it till he left in 2015 and it's been vacant in Merseyside since.

Fabinho will also play for Liverpool next season. Image: PA Images

Despite making the Champions League final Klopp has started the evolution of his team for next season and has already signed Fabinho, on top of the Keita move.

It looked like Nabil Fekir was also set to join from Lyon but in the end they pulled the plug on the transfer because the Lyon forward had complications with his medical.

Can Keita live up to the number eight shirt?

Topics: Liverpool, Football News, Naby Keita, Premier League, Transfer news

Ryan Sidle

Ryan is a writer for SPORTbible. He covers all sport from football, formula one, cricket, rugby, tennis, athletics, mma and wrestling. He obviously hates YOUR football team and has no interest in synchronised swimming.

@Sidler28