8 Footballers Who Proved Everybody Wrong

"You don't watch much German football," was Jurgen Klopp's riposte to an English media suddenly dumbfounded by the reversal of fortunes for Liverpool's midfielder Roberto Firmino. When the Brazilian had arrived on Merseyside from provincial Bundesliga side Hoffenheim in 2015, it came with little in the way of fanfare - despite the then relatively hefty price tag of £29 million. And in truth, he didn't do a great deal to warm up the trumpets.

It probably didn't help that Liverpool tried to partner him with Christian Benteke upfront, a man who'd seemingly cashed his entire career's worth of goals in Birmingham. Uncomfortable in a role dissimilar to the one in which he'd previously prospered, Firmino looked on course to be yet another high-profile, high-valued Anfield flop.

It took a man who did watch a lot of German football to get the best out of him. Klopp was named Liverpool boss in October that season, and repatriated in a more familiar false nine position, Firmino began to rediscover his mojo. Contrary to the doubting media, the former Dortmund manager was abundantly aware of the Brazilian's potential - and how to exploit it. Gradually, Firmino became a virtual ever present as Liverpool went from strength to unimaginable strength, eventually engraving his name in the Merseyside pantheon as one of the Gods who broke the thirty year league duck.