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Mignolet leaves Liverpool for Club Brugge in £8.2m deal

Simon Mignolet has left Liverpool for Club Brugge in an £8.2 million ($10m) deal.

The Belgian goalkeeper has spent six years at Anfield and has now signed a five-year deal with the Jupiler League outfit.

"After completing successful medical tests, goalkeeper Simon Mignolet signs a contract for five years with Blauw-Zwart," a statement from Club Brugge read.

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"Liverpool FC, Club Brugge and Simon reached an agreement on this today."

Liverpool will receive an initial fee of £6.4m with a further £1.8m in add-ons, having granted the 31-year-old’s wish to leave in search of regular first-team football. 

Mignolet played 204 times following his £9m switch from Sunderland in 2013, but has found himself as the club’s No.2 over the past 18 months.

He lost his place to Loris Karius for the second half of the 2017-18 campaign, and played just twice last season after the arrival of Alisson Becker. Both of those appearances came in defeats in domestic cup competitions.

He has featured regularly for Jurgen Klopp during pre-season, with Alisson given an extended break after the Copa America, but Liverpool have been keen to do right by one of their longest-serving players.

The deal at Anfield is seen as similar to the one which saw Lucas Leiva join Lazio in 2017, in which a loyal servant was reluctantly allowed to leave. 

Mignolet was keen to leave last summer but Liverpool refused a loan offer from Napoli, preferring instead to send Karius to Besiktas.

Liverpool will now look to sign a back-up goalkeeper, with only the youngsters Caiomhin Kelleher and Viteszlav Jaros, both of whom have been injured, on the books. 

Andy Lonergan, the former Preston and Leeds ‘keeper, has been training with the team during pre-season but will not be joining permanently. Klopp is likely to sign an experienced deputy before the transfer window closes on Thursday. 

Mignolet was on the bench as Liverpool lost the Community Shield on penalties to Manchester City at Wembley on Sunday, but flew straight to Belgium afterwards to finalise his move.

Brugge are keen to get the deal done before their Champions League qualifier against Dynamo Kiev on Tuesday night.

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