Liverpool confirm agreement to REPLACE fan favourite | OneFootball

One of the big factors why Kelleher was regarded as such a brilliant no.2 was because he was able to come in and replace Alisson in the Brazilian's absence.

Kelleher was able to do this due to his composure on the ball and brilliant reflexes.

His composure on the ball came from playing as a striker in Ireland until the age of 13-years-old, when he switched into playing as a goalkeeper instead.

“He was a very good centre-forward and represented his county in that position," Eddie Harrington told the Liverpool ECHO back in 2022.

“He only went in goal at Under-14s level and that was only about seven years ago. That’s a massive transition. We taught him to pass it out from the back but he probably had the footwork from being an outfielder," Harrington continued.

Now Liverpool are about to sign a player very similar to Kelleher, who went through the same journey at around the same age.

The Reds have confirmed the arrival of Armin Pecsi from Puskas Akademia. Like Kelleher, he is a brilliant shot-stopper with great reflexes, who prevented 14.33 goals in the Hungarian top flight last season.

But even more interestingly, like Kelleher, Pecsi also played as a forward at a younger age and learned the foundations of the game as an outfielder before switching to become a goalkeeper.

"For a long time I played up front, I also played in goal, but I preferred to play as a striker," Pecsi told FEOL.

"Even at the age of maybe 11 or 12, I was still playing in both striker and goalkeeper," he continued.

"Then there came a point when I was told it would be good to decide which I wanted to do, and I decided to stay in goal and continue there. I decided on my own."

In this sense, Liverpool might have just signed their Kelleher 2.0 and have already replaced the beloved fan favourite at Anfield in the matter of days.

All for the paltry sum of £1.5m, Anfield Watch understands. There's no denying this is the perfect deal.