Loris Karius

Karius played for local team SG Mettenberg and SSV Ulm 1846 before joining VfB Stuttgart, where he rose through the youth ranks and appeared for the German under-16 national team against Macedonia in September 2008.

Loris Sven Karius (born 22 June 1993) is a German professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Premier League club Newcastle United.

Karius represented Germany at youth level.

Karius began his career with VfB Stuttgart before moving to Manchester City in 2009.

After two years in Manchester City's youth system, he returned to Germany with Mainz 05.

Karius attended Pestalozzi-Gymnasium Biberach until his move to England in 2009 where he was then privately tutored.

Manchester City invited Karius and his family to England after watching him in Germany's under-16 game against Azerbaijan, and completed his signing on 1 July 2009.

Karius played for the under-18 and the under-21 Manchester City teams, but did not make a senior appearance during his time in Manchester.

He was loaned to Mainz 05 in August 2011, where he played for Mainz 05's reserve team, Mainz 05 II, in the Regionalliga.

On 11 January 2012, the move was made permanent with Karius committing himself to a two-year deal with an option for a third year that would extend his contract to June 2015.

He made his Mainz 05 debut on 1 December 2012 in a Bundesliga match against Hannover 96 when he was substituted for Shawn Parker after goalkeeper Christian Wetklo had been sent off, which, aged 19 years and 5 months, made Karius the youngest goalkeeper ever to play in the Bundesliga for Mainz.

He made no further appearances in the 2012–13 season, but established himself as first-choice goalkeeper in the 2013–14 season and on 12 January 2015 signed a three-year contract extension.

Karius was ever-present in the 2015–16 season, keeping nine clean sheets, saving two penalties and being voted the second-best goalkeeper in the league in a poll of 235 fellow Bundesliga players, ranking behind only Manuel Neuer.

He established himself as the first-choice goalkeeper for the Bundesliga side before transferring to Liverpool in 2016 for a fee of £4.75 million.

On 24 May 2016, Karius signed with Liverpool for a fee of £4.75 million on a five-year deal.

He was given the number 1 shirt.

Karius made his Liverpool debut in a 3–0 League Cup win over Derby County on 20 September 2016.

He played his first Premier League match against Hull City, which ended in a 5–1 victory for the Reds, on 24 September.

Karius recorded his first Premier League clean sheet on 17 October, in a 0–0 draw with rivals Manchester United.

On 24 October 2016, Jürgen Klopp confirmed that Karius was Liverpool's first-choice goalkeeper, ahead of Simon Mignolet.

After two sub-par performances in early December, which included spilling Lewis Cook's tame shot into the path of Nathan Aké to tap home into an empty net to give Bournemouth a 4–3 win, Karius was dropped from the starting eleven.

Regarding this decision, Klopp stated he wanted to take Karius "out the firing line," and that "Karius is a young goalkeeper. He will bounce back."

Karius would go on to play in the 2018 UEFA Champions League final with the club, a 3–1 defeat to Real Madrid.

After loan spells at Beşiktaş and Union Berlin, he left Liverpool in 2022 and joined Newcastle United.

Karius was born in Biberach, Baden-Württemberg to Christine and Harald Karius.

Harald intended for his son to become a motocross rider, but Loris' grandfather, Karl, encouraged him to focus on football.

In the 2018 Champions League quarter-final second leg away to Manchester City, with the aggregate scoreline at 3–1 to Liverpool, Karius was involved in a controversial incident when he failed to clear a cross into the penalty area, punching the ball down which ricocheted off teammate James Milner and into the path of City winger Leroy Sané who scored, only for the linesman to give offside.

In Liverpool's Champions League semi-final home leg against Roma, with the scoreline at 0–0, Karius let Aleksandar Kolarov's shot go through his hands with the ball then hitting the crossbar, before Liverpool went on to win 5–2.

In the away game in Rome, Karius was involved in a contested incident when he came rushing out of his goal and brought down Edin Džeko inside the penalty area, but instead of a penalty and red card the linesman gave offside in what The Telegraph called "an extremely tight call".

Minutes later, Karius parried a Roma shot into the path of Džeko which levelled the score for Roma at 2–2, before the game finished 4–2 to Roma but 7–6 to Liverpool on aggregate.

Karius started for Liverpool against Real Madrid in the 2018 UEFA Champions League final, which his side lost 3–1.

He was deemed at fault for two of the goals that Liverpool conceded, the first and third: the first when his throw was blocked by Karim Benzema and deflected into the net; the second when he mishandled Gareth Bale's 40-yard strike.

After the match, Karius wept and tearfully apologised to Liverpool fans who remained in the stands.

He also stated that his mistakes "lost the team the final".

After the match, Karius received online death threats, mainly on Twitter, which prompted Merseyside Police to launch an investigation.

Five days later, Karius underwent an examination at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Medics concluded he had suffered a concussion from an elbow to his head, reportedly from Sergio Ramos just minutes before his first mistake.

Doctors, however, did not pinpoint the exact moment he was concussed.

According to Doctor Ross Zafonte, it was possible the concussion affected his performance.

Later, on 6 July, at the start of pre season, Klopp stated that Karius was "100% influenced by his concussion", leading to his errors, with Klopp saying "We don't use it as an excuse, we use it as an explanation. For me, it's 100% the explanation [for his performance]. He was influenced by that knock – that is 100%".