“I’m really happy to be here!” – Xherdan Shaqiri on his first day of Liverpool training

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Xherdan Shaqiri has joined up with his LFC teammates and sat down with the club’s official website to discuss all things surrounding his £13m move. 

Xherdan Shaqiri has finished up his holidays following a £13m move to Liverpool from Stoke City earlier this month, joining up with his new teammates in New Jersey ahead of last night’s 2-1 victory over Manchester City.

The Reds new no.23 was keen to get back out on the training pitch, telling the club’s official website that it feels “great to be back on the pitch and smell the green grass!”

The former Bayern Munich forward has spent the past fortnight holidaying after reaching the knockout stages of the World Cup with his national side – Switzerland – and believes it’s helped him freshen up ahead of the coming season.

“It was really important to switch off and recover well,” he said.

“We had a long season last year and the World Cup was also very intense. I’m back fresh and happy to be back on the pitch.”

While Shaqiri has only just reported to pre-season, the Swiss international is hoping to feature in some way, shape or form when the club take on domestic rivals Manchester United on Saturday night.

“I need a few training sessions and then I hope I can get some minutes against Manchester United. I feel good.

“Of course, on the first day after one session you are always a little tired but I feel good. I didn’t lose a lot because I only had two-and-a-half weeks’ holiday. So I feel good and ready to go.

“I’m really excited,” he added when asked about the prospect of being an important part of this talented squad and potentially help the club to push for silverware.

“When you see on paper the kind of players that are here, the quality of the team is amazing. You can see the coach wants to go forward with the players he brought in, very good quality players who can help the team.

“I’m really happy to be a part of this big club and to help them win titles.”

“(Team spirit) is also important, to be good with each other. I can see the spirit in this team is big and very good and very important. It’s going to be a long season and an important season to try to be successful. We want to be successful and to try to go forward and give the fans some trophies.”

Shaqiri also commented on that gif that has become a frequently used meme by Liverpool’s social media using fanbase.

When Shaqiri visited Melwood for his first tour of the training facility and to sign the contract, the Swiss international was videoed enthusiastically greeting Andreas Kornmayer – the Reds head of fitness and conditioning – whom he’d previously worked with during their shared time at Bayern.

The pointing gesture and video clip have since been edited into numerous different gifs on Twitter, with many fans suggesting it should become Shaqiri’s new celebration when he scores his first goal in Liverpool colours.

“No!” he replied when asked if he expected the hilarious reaction the gesture has received.

“It was just the emotion because I last saw him a long time ago so I was really happy to see him again!”

You can check out the full gallery of Shaqiri’s first day of training in Liverpool colours on the club’s official website here.