Naby Keïta’s memories are inevitably tinged with regret when he looks back on his Liverpool career. Signed from RB Leipzig for a then club-record £54m after Liverpool paid a £6m premium to ward off competition from others chasing one of Europe’s most in-demand players, the Guinea midfielder was handed Steven Gerrard’s famous No 8 shirt when he arrived at Anfield in 2018.
But despite picking up the full set of winners’ medals – from Champions League and the Club World Cup to Liverpool’s first Premier League title – Keïta will always wonder what might have been after injuries restricted him to 49 league starts in five seasons.
“It was tough mentally, of course,” he says. “I was the first to get frustrated. I wanted to play every game but unfortunately I had a lot of injuries that prevented me from giving more than I did. But that’s the life of a footballer. I did everything I could to be there for the team at all times, but unfortunately injuries are part of our job.”
Keïta found it hard to settle and sustained hamstring and back injuries during his first few months. He still managed to score in Liverpool’s victory over Porto in the quarter-final as they went on to win the Champions League in his first season, although he had to miss the final against Tottenham owing to another injury. Yet even as Keïta’s absences mounted and appearances became less frequent in the title-winning season and beyond, he never felt he was being criticised by the supporters.
“The Liverpool fans have given me a lot of love,” he says. “Even today, wherever I meet them, they show me the same love. They’re the best fans in the world. Liverpool is a family and you never walk alone. My aim was to fulfil my childhood dream of winning titles. Winning the Premier League after 30 years, winning the Champions League – these are incredible moments that I can’t forget. We won a lot of trophies and we were able to make our fans happy. That was the most important thing. This team was hungry. We wanted to win every game and we were lucky to have Jürgen Klopp to push us to give our best on the pitch. He’s a fantastic coach and he was the strength of this group.”
Perhaps Keïta’s finest hour came when he scored the first goal in Liverpool’s 5-0 win at Manchester United in October 2021. He left Anfield 12 months earlier than Klopp after returning to the Bundesliga and joining Werder Bremen on a free transfer.
“I had the option of extending my stay at Liverpool but, after five years, I wanted to get more playing time elsewhere,” he says. “I had several offers but I decided to sign for Bremen because Germany is a country I already know. I was also convinced by what the coach and management at Bremen had to say. I just wanted to play football, to be out on the pitch, making passes and scoring goals. If I wanted the money, I would have chosen to sign somewhere other than Bremen. Here, all that motivated me was to have the opportunity to play every weekend, enjoy myself and give pleasure. Unfortunately, things haven’t gone according to plan.”
Keïta has been used sparingly by Bremen’s coach, Ole Werner, and had made only one league start when, last April, he was suspended for the rest of the season and fined after being accused of not turning up for an away game against Bayer Leverkusen. The club claimed he had chosen “not to travel to the ground with the team” on their bus “and decided to go home instead” after discovering he was not in the starting lineup. Keïta – who at the time accused Bremen of “trying to tarnish my image” – does not want to go into specifics but says he has been disappointed by the way he has been treated.
“In my last year at Liverpool, I didn’t play much and when I arrived here, I was motivated,” he says. “We’ll have to talk about the bus incident one day, but everyone who knows me knows that I’m a professional and that I’m not undisciplined. Despite everything, I apologised to the group even before the end of last season because we’re all human and nobody’s perfect. Wherever I’ve been, from Salzburg to Leipzig to Liverpool, I’ve always tried to be exemplary.”
Keïta held talks with Sunderland and clubs in Turkey over a potential move in the summer but remained at Bremen, where he is training with the under-23s.
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“A lot of people say to me: ‘Naby, you’re injured, why don’t you want to play for Bremen?’ I say: ‘No, I’m fine.’ Since I came back from the Africa Cup of Nations [in February], all I’ve wanted to do is play for the fans and the club. But it’s not up to me. The club decided to put me with the under-23s. I’m training with them and helping the youngsters while I wait for the wheels to turn. The fans have shown me a lot of love and they deserve to see me return that love on the pitch.”
Keïta was last seen playing at the Olympics, where he had the honour of being Guinea’s flag bearer at the opening ceremony on the River Seine. “It was incredible,” he says. “A great feeling of pride.” The Syli were eliminated in the group stages in their first appearance for 58 years and hope to qualify next year for their first World Cup.
“I’m 29 years old now – I feel great,” he says. “I’m training and waiting to see what the future holds. The day I feel my body is no longer up to it, I’ll stop, but for now I feel fine. I’ve got a few more years to give to football. My country’s dream is to play in the World Cup one day. We have a good squad today. I hope that one day this dream will come true for the happiness of the people of Guinea.”
