The second coming of Loris Karius, eight years on from his Liverpool nightmare in Kiev | OneFootball

Loris Karius had come to terms with his footballing career being over when, following his Liverpool release in 2021, he was left without any desirable club prospects at the prime goalkeeping age of 28. “I was retired,” Karius tells The Independent, “because I didn’t do anything for seven months. It sounds dramatic. In my mind, I was pretty much retired.”

You wouldn’t blame him for falling out of love with the game. Three years prior, Karius had endured one of the cruellest nights a sportsman could possibly conceive, sparking a downward spiral that looked terminal. The infamy of his 2018 Champions League final capitulation in Kiev, later discovered to have been catalysed by a concussion, came to unfairly but understandably define his time on Merseyside. There, they struggle to remember him beyond his worst moment.

But while his legacy remains tainted by that one fateful night in Ukraine, Karius is writing a new story in his homeland. The German stopper’s “retirement” was short-lived, and he is now quietly in the midst of a quite remarkable redemption arc at Schalke 04 – traditionally Germany’s third biggest club who now find themselves in the second tier – with both sharing the common goal of clawing their way back after a dramatic fall from grace.

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Loris Karius is in the midst of a quite remarkable redemption arc at Schalke 04 (Getty Images)

In 12 months in Gelsenkirchen, Karius has helped transform a club that was last season flirting with relegation to the third tier, to one that now sits atop 2. Bundesliga – all after overcoming a serious injury that derailed his first campaign at the Veltins after just four appearances. He sheriffs the best defence in the league, conceding just 10 goals in 18 games, and is revered by one of the most fiercely loyal fanbases in European football.

“There’s been times when the confidence was lower – now the confidence is obviously really high,” Karius exclaims. It’s a testament to his powers of recovery to get back to this place in his career, considering how drastically downhill things went post-Kiev.

The Ukrainian capital proved the resting place of his Liverpool tenure, though Karius only learned this retrospectively. “The conversation was that I’m going to start again in the new season,” Karius says, divulging discussions held with Reds manager Jurgen Klopp in the aftermath of the final.

Karius had been ratified as Klopp’s No 1 over Simon Mignolet in the 2017/18 season that had just gone, and the stopper – then 24 – was apparently reassured that his development would not be abandoned off the back of one nightmarish outing.

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Karius tearfully apologises to the Liverpool fans after his nightmare display in the 2018 Champions League final (Getty Images)

Come mid-July, Liverpool had made Alisson Becker the world’s most expensive goalkeeper and Karius knew he’d been replaced, without any warning from the club.

“It took me a bit off guard. I just read it in the news,” Karius recalls. “No one told me before that they were making the signing or spoke with me but I guess that’s football. When I asked why no one was informing me, they said they cannot let 30 players know every time we sign a player in their position.

“There’s no bad blood or anything. Alisson has done a fantastic job up to today, he’s a great goalkeeper. But if they planned on this from the beginning, maybe someone could have like put me on notice a little earlier.”

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Karius (right) was not told that Liverpool intended to replace him with Alisson Becker (left) (Getty Images)

Of the mindset that game-time was necessary for him to move past Kiev, Alisson’s arrival left Karius scrambling to find a club still on the lookout a starting goalkeeper in the latter stages of the summer transfer window. “My options were a bit limited,” he laments.  “Obviously in August, most good teams already have the number one and finished the planning, so that didn’t really help me that much to find a team,”

When offered the chance to move to Turkish giants Besiktas, Karius had to be “quick to make that decision” – and in the rush, his decision was misguided. For a player needing to be nurtured back to confidence, the unforgiving environment of Turkish football only harmed Karius, who was ferociously lambasted as he struggled to rid mistakes from his game.

“I went away on loan because I thought a new environment will probably help me to get a fresh start, but this environment was really difficult in the end,” says Karius, whose two-year loan spell in Turkey was cut short in explosive fashion when he alleged the club had failed to pay his wages.

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Karius' rushed decision to move to Besiktas proved misguided (Getty Images)

A subsequent loan to Union Berlin starved him of game-time and with his contract expiring upon his return to Liverpool, Karius was cast out into the wilderness. Without a club, he considered never returning to football.

“It was not the worst six months,” he smiles, reflecting on his time out of the game. “I still enjoyed myself. I spent a lot of time with my family, I did a lot of travelling, a lot of things that normally you can’t do when you’re in your everyday routine.” But his fire still burned. “Obviously I was still eager to play football, but I didn’t want to do anything I was not 100 percent behind.”

Such an enticing opportunity was eventually presented by Newcastle United, albeit as the club’s third-choice keeper behind Nick Pope and Martin Dubravka. Even still, Karius wasn’t there for shooting practice; he wanted to play.  “I felt great at Newcastle,” he asserts. “Unfortunately there, I didn't get really the chances to get a good run in the team. I think I would've done really well.”

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Karius arrived at Newcastle as the club’s third-choice keeper but had ambitions of playing more (Getty Images)

Karius ended up making just two appearances in his two years with the Magpies. One of them was at Wembley.

With Pope suspended and Dubravka cup-tied, Karius was called upon to start the 2023 Carabao Cup final against Manchester United – a first competitive appearance in almost exactly two years. Haunted by Kiev, there was the obvious question on whether he could handle the occasion. And while Newcastle succumbed to defeat that day, the prevailing reaction was that Karius had done himself justice, banishing his final demons from five years prior.

“It was obviously a sad day for everyone in Newcastle because it was the first final in a really long time and we didn't get the win. But it was a really good experience,” Karius says.  “Wembley is a great place to play a final and I just enjoyed myself. Of course, you feel a bit of pressure, but it is normal before every game. Even though we didn't win, it was a nice story to get back out there and play in another final.”

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Karius banished his cup final demons in a commendable Carabao Cup display (PA Wire)

Karius’ time at Newcastle came with a growing sense of atonement for the player, aided by his relationship with Eddie Howe.  “He knew he could trust me, rely on me. He always was a really, really nice guy and a really good manager. We had a great relationship and in general I really enjoyed my time at the club.”

It set him up nicely for what was to come. With renewed confidence, Karius has helped steer Schalke from a fallen giant drifting towards the abyss to one that now possesses real hope of a revival.

Player and club are enjoying a second coming, parallels that Karius can’t help but recognise, and a return to the Bundesliga would act as its culmination for both.

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Karius is vying for a Bundesliga return with a club whose fall from grace he can relate to (Getty Images)

“It would mean a lot to everyone – not just to me – at this club that is supporting every day through really bad times and through good times,” he says, asked on the prospect of promotion.

“To see all these people, the joy that they have right now watching us play is really special. I'm trying to give them as much as possible special moments in the second half of the season. We’ll see where it takes us but ultimately that's a goal I have. It would be a really nice story.”