Joel Matip Liverpool 2019-20

Matip signs new long-term contract at Liverpool until 2024

Liverpool defender Joel Matip has signed a new long-term contract with the Premier League leaders, extending his stay at Anfield to the summer of 2024.

The 28-year-old former Cameroon international’s previous deal was set to expire at the end of the season. Jurgen Klopp has now moved to secure the future of a man who has gone from strength to strength over the past 12 months.

Signed from Bundesliga side Schalke on a free transfer in the summer of 2016, Matip was a key figure in Liverpool’s Champions League victory last season and has now formed arguably the best centre-back pairing in the Premier League – if not in Europe – with Virgil van Dijk.

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“It’s a great feeling to be a longer part of the club," he told Liverpool's website. "It’s really just a great feeling.

“From outside, you know Liverpool is such a big club – but when you are inside, then you really get a feeling for how big the club is. In all the countries, the supporters are everywhere. It’s a massive and big club that I think every player would want to play for."

Prior to this season, Matip had been rotated with the likes of Joe Gomez and Dejan Lovren but he has now started six of Liverpool’s eight games in the league this term, and scored in the 3-1 win over Arsenal in August.

Klopp’s side have looked near unbeatable with Matip and Van Dijk at the back, and head into Sunday’s game with Manchester United eight points clear of Manchester City with eight wins from eight. Indeed, Matip has not been on the losing side in any of his last 35 Premier League appearances.

He had missed Liverpool's last game, the last-minute 2-1 win over Leicester, with a slight knock but he has assured fans he is fit and ready for the trip to Old Trafford on Sunday.

“We have a young and talented team and I think every one of us is hungry," he added. "Now we’ve seen how it is to win something and we want to have that feeling again.

“There are a lot of things still to achieve. You never know how it will end, you just have to work hard and do the best you can do. Then we will see.

“It is an honour to be a part of the club. It makes me happy that people think I’ve done a good job and they want to keep me.”

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