Liverpool announce two fan favourites will leave the club after not being offered new contracts

Liverpool have announced a club stalwart and fan favourite will leave Merseyside this summer.

Sunday's Premier League encounter against Wolverhampton Wanderers will be Jurgen Klopp's final game in charge of the Reds after a nine-year spell.

And the club have also announced the game will be Joel Matip's last for the club, with the centre-back bidding farewell to Anfield after eight-years.

Matip was among Klopp's first signings, joining Liverpool on a free transfer from Schalke at the back end of the 2015-16 season.

He went on to make 201 appearances, scoring 11 goals and claiming seven winner’s medals including the Champions League and Premier League title.

Elsewhere, the club also announced that Thiago Alcantara will leave Anfield after four injury-plagued seasons in which he made 98 appearances and scored six goals. Thiago lifted the FA Cup and Community Shield during his time at Anfield.

“In all the years that I have been involved in football, I am not sure I have come across too many players who are more loved than Joel Matip. I’m not even sure it would be possible to say anything bad about him,” Klopp told the club's website.

“A wonderful professional, a wonderful footballer and a wonderful human being – we have been blessed to have him with us for as long as we have and now all we can do is wish him well as he heads off in a new direction.

“Joel’s qualities as a player are there for all to see and as a club we have benefited from them since the first moment that he joined. I don’t think he has had too many headlines over the years but he has only ever been a very famous figure within our group.

Joel Matip will bid farewell to the Reds this summer after an eight-season spell during which he helped the club to some of its most memorable modern moments.

Thank you for everything, Joel ❤️

— Liverpool FC (@LFC) May 17, 2024

“I have said before that if there was one person who wouldn’t care if he was underrated it would be Joel, but the truth is we could not have rated him more highly. Not only has he set the standards for himself, he has set them for others and this is one of the main reasons why his time here has been so successful.”

The German added: “If I had to choose one moment from his time here it would definitely be his assist for Divock Origi at the Champions League final in Madrid.

“This was the touch that detonated an explosion in the LFC family. What a moment. What a player.

“We wish Joel and his family the very best for the future.”