Liverpool’s Champions League meeting with Bayern Munich is bound to make Xherdan Shaqiri reminisce. The Swiss star spent three seasons in Munich between 2012 and 2015, and was an unused substitute when Bayern beat Jurgen Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League final at the end of his first season at the club.
Basel announced that Shaqiri had accepted a transfer to German club Bayern Munich of the Bundesliga for the 2012–13 season. The transfer fee was a reported €11.6 million, with Shaqiri signing a four-year contract with the German club which would last until 30 June 2016, and which paid him around €2 million per season. He faced competition for a place in the midfield from established internationals Franck Ribéry, Arjen Robben, Toni Kroos and Thomas Müller.
His career since leaving the Allianz Arena has been a bit up and down, but he’s made a strong impression at Liverpool during his first season at Anfield since signing from relegated Stoke City in the summer. Liverpool signed Shaqiri on a five-year deal after triggering his £13.5 million release clause.
He made his unofficial debut for the club on 29 July, in a pre-season friendly game against rivals Manchester United 4–1 and scored from a bicycle kick in a 4–1 win. On his competitive debut on 12 August, in the opening match of the season against West Ham United, he came on as a late substitute in a 4–0 win. He made his first full start on 22 September, in a 3–0 win over Southampton, and received praise for his performance which earned him the BBC Sport Man of the Match award.
Shaqiri has scored six goals in 23 appearances for the Reds, including a memorable brace against Manchester United in December. That’s the sort of thing that gets you instant cult hero status on Merseyside, but Reds fans may not take too kindly to the World XI Shaqiri picked for German TV channel Sport1 prior to taking on his former club Bayern this evening.
Asked to name a side solely of currently active players – and perhaps adapting his selection for a German audience – the 27-year-old went with three players he’ll be coming up against this evening – Manuel Neuer, Thiago Alcantara and Robert Lewandowski, all of whom he played alongside at Bayern.
In addition, he only picked two current Liverpool teammates in Virgil van Dijk, who is suspended for the Bayern game, and Andy Robertson. That meant there was no place for any of the Reds’ famed front three of Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah, who also saw his Champions League nemesis Sergio Ramos named in the XI.