Champions League winner says he almost joined Liverpool before signing for Man Utd

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Liverpool have had some seriously intriguing transfer near misses in the goalkeeping department in recent years.

Liverpool looked at signing Manuel Neuer before he joined Bayern Munich, while the Reds tried to sign Neto prior to his spells at both Bournemouth and Arsenal.

Even further back than that, Liverpool almost signed another top-class goalkeeper who would potentially have changed the course of the club’s history and the landscape of European football as a whole.

Indeed, speaking on Rio Ferdinand Presents, Manchester United legend, Edwin van der Sar has now admitted that he spoke to Liverpool about signing for the club on multiple occasions.

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Edwin van der Sar almost joined Liverpool

Van der Sar spoke about how he almost ended up at Anfield.

Van Der Sar left Ajax for Juventus in 1999, but, at that point, Liverpool did come in for him and there were serious, lengthy discussions.

The Dutchman would then leave Juventus for Fulham in 2001, but Liverpool came in for him again at that time.

“I, for myself. I had a few opportunities to go. I went in ’99. I spoke to Liverpool for a long time. And at a certain point it could have been a different, very different view,” Van der Sar said.

“So then you go to Fulham for 7 million?” Van der Sar was asked.

“Something like that, yeah. I think once again, there were a few opportunities, but I wanted to wait till the end of the venture window. And I wanted to play, I think, Dortmund was in, Liverpool was in again,” Van der Sar said.

What if Liverpool signed Van der Sar?

It’s interesting to ponder what could have been if Liverpool signed Van der Sar in 1999.

The Dutchman was undoubtedly one of the best goalkeepers in the world at that point, so perhaps he would’ve carried the Reds to more silverware.

Liverpool finished just seven points behind Arsenal in the 2001/02 Premier League title race, so perhaps they could’ve bridged that gap with Van der Sar in goal.

However, in some way, Liverpool may have had a lucky escape here.

Let’s not forget, Liverpool’s greatest moment of the 21^st century, the 2005 Champions League Final win vs AC Milan, was largely inspired by the heroics of Jerzy Dudek in goal.

Dudek made an incredible double save from Andriy Shevchenko during extra time, while he channelled his inner Bruce Grobbelaar to get Liverpool over the line in the penalty shootout with his dancing on the line doing enough to put off multiple Milan players.

There’s no saying that Van der Sar wouldn’t have been able to do the same, but it was Dudek’s eccentricity that won the day for Liverpool in Istanbul, and Van der Sar’s more stoic approach may have yielded slightly different results.

Indeed, Van der Sar was much more of a relaxing presence in goal. Gary Neville even called Van der Sar the calmest player ever recently when discussing Jordan Pickford.

Of course, if Van der Sar had joined Liverpool, that would have had serious ramifications for Manchester United too as they wouldn’t have been as successful in the mid-2000s.

Meanwhile the Dutchman was the hero of his own Champions League final penalty shootout in 2008.

This is a missed transfer that changed the landscape of the Premier League and European football as a whole, and it’s interesting to ponder what could’ve been if Van der Sar had gone to Liverpool all those years ago.