HE is making a habit of driving his fellow German Jurgen Klopp in-Sane.
And this Manchester City starlet is planning to make the Liverpool boss suffer again at Anfield tomorrow.
Leroy Sane has revealed for the first time the Kop chief was frantically trying to persuade him to snub City and join him in the summer of 2016 — and not for the first time.
While Klopp was in charge of Borussia Dortmund, his right-hand man, David Wagner, convinced him to make a move for the shining light of Schalke’s academy.
But back then, there was no way teenager Sane wanted to anger fans by moving to their rivals.
It is fair to say Klopp has admired the one that got away — not once but twice — for a while now. Leroy Sane has revealed for the first time the Kop chief was frantically trying to persuade him to snub City and join him in the summer of 2016 — and not for the first time.
While Klopp was in charge of Borussia Dortmund, his right-hand man, David Wagner, convinced him to make a move for the shining light of Schalke’s academy.
But back then, there was no way teenager Sane wanted to anger fans by moving to their rivals.
It is fair to say Klopp has admired the one that got away — not once but twice — for a while now. Sane said: “Before I joined City, I was talking with them. Jurgen was calling me. He did a good job at Dortmund. I met him when he was there.
“He’s a good guy, a nice guy — honest. And he works well with Liverpool.” What about the previous time — as a teenager at Schalke? Was he not tempted then?
He said: “There was a time, when he was at Dortmund, when I was still in the academy that I could have gone there from Schalke. But there was no thoughts at all to move to a rival.”
Sane is relaxed and full of smiles as he answers the questions.
He is clearly happy with the decisions he made — and, right now, who can blame him?
City are chasing silverware on four fronts and Sane is starring for a team producing some of the best football the Premier League has ever seen. Not bad for a player who only turned 22 on Thursday. He added: “There are no regrets at all about the decisions I made. I’m very happy here, I have a lot of friends.
“Raheem Sterling, John Stones, Kyle Walker, every one of them is a really good person, we have fun with everyone, a laugh with everyone.
“It feels special at the moment — even when we come to training — because we feel we can win some trophies.
“I’m enjoying the season a lot with the way we play. We are first and have a good chance to win the Premier League. Fifteen points ahead is massive. I don’t think anyone expected this.
"We’re also still in the semi-final of Carabao Cup, FA Cup and the Champions League. It makes it a lot of fun to play with these players, to work with them.” Sane may be having fun, but boss Guardiola is deadly serious when he believes the German winger can do so much more.
Against Burnley in the FA Cup last Saturday, the German scored one and created another — but was still told by his manager he can improve.
And Sane is convinced he has the right manager to turn him into a football superstar.
He said: “No player at the beginning of his career knows how good he can be. It’s exciting and a challenge to see how I can get to the best level.
“The manager has improved me since day one. There are areas for me still to work on. I played against his Bayern Munich team — it was amazing and not so comfortable to play against.” The plan will be to make life uncomfortable for Klopp and Liverpool tomorrow as City face arguably their toughest Premier League game of the season so far.
But no matter how intense or tough it gets, Sane will not change. He is an old-fashioned winger who loves a trick and takes delight in beating his full-back.
It can be infuriating at times but, when he is on song, he has the full-backs ‘on toast’ — and fans on the edge of their seats.
Sane added: “That’s how my game was all the time from when I was young, to fight one-on-one. I like it more when I win the duels.”
Klopp knows better than anyone that his full-backs will need to be ready tomorrow.
From The Sun
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