Crystal Palace forward Christian Benteke says he left Liverpool to not become ‘a loser’
Belgian centre-forward had a torrid time at Anfield before securing a move to Crystal Palace in a club-record £32million
CRYSTAL PALACE striker Christian Benteke felt he had to leave Liverpool after falling down the pecking order at Anfield.
The Belgium international insists he never fell out with the German boss and he even met up Jurgen Klopp whilst he was at Aston Villa ahead of a potential move to Borussia Dortmund.
The 26-year-old eventually joined Liverpool for £32.5million in 2015, but after just one season at Anfield he was sold to Palace for a record fee of £32million.
Keep up-to-date with all the latest transfer news and gossip ahead of the January window with SunSport’s daily LIVE blog
Benteke made 45 appearances for the Reds, but the majority of those were from the bench, scoring just ten times.
Whilst this season, under Alan Pardew, he has started 14 games and appeared as a sub once, netting eight times for the Eagles whilst also bagging a hat-trick for Belgium against Gibraltar.
“It’s thanks to Alan Pardew that I came here, because he believes in me. I needed to get some playing time. I scored early, which was important.
“You can’t allow yourself to give up, to stay in the situation of a loser, so you try to find a solution, to be happy. I found that by coming to Crystal Palace, and I’m happy today.”
Benteke's game time at Liverpool decreased once Klopp was made manager, but the Belgian insists there are no hard feelings between the two.
He added: "We have always had a good relationship.
"I went to see him in my first season at Aston Villa in 2013 because he wanted me to sign for Dortmund... It’s the sort of thing you have to accept.
"You have to face up to it. When Klopp came in, given the players available to him ... I wasn’t among his first choices.
"Given the way he wanted to play, perhaps there were more interesting players than me. But I’m not a child: I didn’t cry, I didn’t moan, even if of course I wanted to play. It was frustrating."