Former Liverpool goalkeeper Loris Karius has experienced a rollercoaster journey in professional football since breaking through at Mainz.
He got his first taste of English football at just 16, joining Manchester City’s academy in 2009. However, he never made a senior appearance for City and returned to Germany in 2011, signing with Mainz.
Before his stint in Manchester, Karius played for local clubs FV Biberach, SG Mettenberg, and SSV Ulm 1846 before joining VfB Stuttgart youth academy in 2005. But it was at Mainz where he truly made his name.
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Karius got his big break in November 2013 when Mainz’s first-choice goalkeeper, Christian Wetklo, was suspended, and stand-in Heinz Müller suffered an injury ahead of a home match against Eintracht Frankfurt.
Handed his Bundesliga debut by Thomas Tuchel on December 1, 2012, the then 20-year-old went on to make 22 appearances that season, keeping nine clean sheets as Mainz finished an impressive seventh.
Liverpool and the Champions League Nightmare
In the summer of 2016, Karius moved to Liverpool, signed by Jurgen Klopp, who was familiar with him from his time at Mainz. Though he inherited the No.1 jersey at Anfield, he soon found himself competing with Simon Mignolet for the starting spot.
A hand injury during pre-season delayed his impact, but Karius eventually started 10 games in the 2016–17 season. However, an error against Bournemouth led to him being dropped, and for the rest of the campaign, he was primarily used in domestic cup competitions.
The 2017–18 season proved pivotal. Although Mignolet started as first-choice, Karius impressed in the Champions League group stage, keeping clean sheets in crucial wins over Maribor and Spartak Moscow.
By January, Klopp reinstated him as Liverpool’s No. 1. However, the defining moment of Karius’s career came in the 2018 Champions League final against Real Madrid.
Two costly mistakes allowed Karim Benzema and Gareth Bale to score, contributing to Liverpool’s 3-1 defeat.
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Karius appeared to take a blow to the head after a collision with Sergio Ramos earlier in the match. A subsequent evaluation by Massachusetts General Hospital revealed that he had sustained a concussion.
Despite the diagnosis, the match effectively ended his Liverpool career, especially after the arrival of Alisson Becker later that summer.
Still, Karius received a warm reception from Liverpool fans when he replaced Alisson in a pre-season friendly against Torino.
Loan Spells and Newcastle Stint
In August 2018, Karius joined Turkish club BeÅŸiktaÅŸ on a two-year loan. His time in Istanbul was a mixed experience – while he produced solid performances, errors also attracted criticism, such as being caught out by a deflected cross-cum-shot in a Europa League match against Malmö.
After making 67 appearances and keeping 14 clean sheets, Karius terminated his contract with BeÅŸiktaÅŸ in May 2020 and returned to Germany, signing with Union Berlin in September. However, he made just four appearances before permanently leaving Liverpool in 2022.
That summer, Karius joined Newcastle United. He had to wait until February 2023 for his first appearance, which came in the League Cup final against Manchester United.
Unfortunately, the match ended in a 2-0 defeat, and he would make just one more appearance before leaving the club last summer.
Karius has joined Schalke on a short-term deal until the end of the 2024/25 Bundesliga 2 season