Loris Karius: From Kyiv Trauma to Second Chance at Schalke

Loris Karius stood in front of the microphones and sounded like a man who has finally stopped running from his past.

He is 33 now, a seasoned Bundesliga goalkeeper at Schalke, not the fragile 25-year-old who left the 2018 Champions League final in tears and in pieces. Back then, his world fell apart in Kyiv. Now, with Jürgen Klopp taking over Germany, the man who once trusted him at Liverpool may yet hold the key to the most unlikely of comebacks.

“I don’t know what he is planning,” Karius told WAZ when asked about the new national-team era under Klopp. “But I’m now playing in the Bundesliga with Schalke – the conditions are not bad. If I produce top performances, maybe I can become a candidate.”

He paused, then nailed his priorities in one line: he will “give everything for Schalke – then we’ll see what comes.”

From Anfield’s No 1 to the abyss

Klopp knows exactly what Karius can do. He made that bet once before.

In 2016, the then Liverpool manager signed the goalkeeper from Mainz 05 and, for a time, installed him as his No 1 at Anfield. It was a clear statement: young, modern, aggressive off his line. A keeper to grow with a team on the rise.

Then came Real Madrid, Kyiv, and one of the most brutal nights any goalkeeper has endured on a major stage.

Liverpool lost the Champions League final 3-1. Karius, who later was diagnosed with a concussion sustained during the match, made two catastrophic errors that led directly to Madrid goals. The images have been replayed endlessly: the rolled-out ball intercepted by Karim Benzema, the mishandled long-range strike from Gareth Bale. For Karius, they were not just mistakes. They were the trapdoor.

“Up to that point, my career had only been going steeply upwards, then I suddenly crashed spectacularly – right to the very bottom,” he recalled. The fallout dragged him into a dark place. “In that phase I felt that nobody would understand me. I no longer wanted to train, I no longer wanted to play.”

At 25, with a Champions League final on his CV, he even thought about quitting the game altogether.

He never played for Liverpool again. Loan spells at Besiktas between 2018 and 2020, then Union Berlin in 2020/21, offered minutes but not a real home. When Liverpool declined to renew his contract in 2022, the split was final. The goalkeeper who had once been earmarked as Klopp’s long-term solution in England drifted to the margins.

Reborn in Royal Blue

The route back has been anything but glamorous.

After two years at Newcastle United and half a year without a club, Karius resurfaced at Schalke at the start of 2025. It felt, at first glance, like a last roll of the dice for both sides: a fallen European finalist and a fallen German giant, each trying to find their way back.

It worked.

In the season just gone, Karius played a major role in Schalke’s promotion, rediscovering the authority and sharpness that once made him one of Germany’s most promising keepers. In Gelsenkirchen, the noise is fierce, the expectations unforgiving – but the fit seems natural. He speaks now like a man who has found his place.

“I can well imagine ending my career here. At the moment I’m not thinking about anything else,” he said, underlining how settled he feels in Royal Blue.

Schalke, back in the Bundesliga, want stability. Karius wants roots. Out of that shared need, a version of the goalkeeper has emerged that Germany had almost forgotten: commanding, vocal, and, crucially, consistent.

If he keeps that level in the top flight, the conversation about the national team no longer sounds fanciful. It sounds logical.

Klopp’s clean slate – and a wide-open No 1 shirt

Klopp, unveiled as Germany head coach on Friday, chose his first press conference to send a jolt through the established order.

“I have an incredible number of ideas,” he said. “Everyone who is eligible to play for the national team should make an effort. It is a fresh start. Players will get a chance who are not even expecting it yet.”

By his own count, 57 outfield players are already on his radar for the first squad. Between the posts, the situation is even more fluid.

Manuel Neuer, who returned specifically for the disappointing 2026 World Cup and Germany’s round-of-32 exit against Paraguay, has retired from international football again. The era-defining constant is gone. For the first time in more than a decade, the identity of Germany’s No 1 is completely open.

Before Neuer’s short-lived comeback, Oliver Baumann of TSG Hoffenheim had held the starting role. Alexander Nübel, now at Besiktas, and Jonas Urbig at Bayern Munich both see an opening and believe they can take it. The position is no longer owned; it is up for grabs.

Then there is Marc-André ter Stegen. The Barcelona goalkeeper, who is reportedly close to a loan to Ajax, was once pencilled in as Neuer’s natural successor after Euro 2024. Injuries and misfortune derailed that plan, but his ambition has not disappeared. He will push again.

Into that crowded frame steps Karius. No guarantees. No promises. But, for the first time since that night in Kyiv, a realistic path.

If he keeps turning in strong, reliable performances for Schalke in the Bundesliga, Klopp cannot ignore him forever – not when the new national coach has already shown he is willing to look beyond the obvious names.

A date with the Netherlands – and with history

The first real test of Klopp’s Germany comes at the end of September, away to the Netherlands in the Nations League. It is also the first realistic window for Karius to receive the call that has eluded him his entire senior career.

He has represented Germany at youth level. He has played for one of Europe’s biggest clubs. He has lived through a final that would have broken many for good. Now, at 33, he stands on the edge of something else entirely: not redemption – that word is used too cheaply – but relevance at the very top level again.

He cannot control Klopp’s decision. He can control Schalke’s penalty area.

If he keeps doing that with the authority he has shown since arriving in Gelsenkirchen, the story that began with a nightmare in Kyiv may yet find its next chapter in a Germany shirt.