Divock Origi and Xherdan Shaqiri were two notable well-wishers as former teammate Fabinho left Liverpool.
A move to Al Ittihad has been in the works for a little while and was officially announced on Monday evening. Following the announcement, Fabinho took to Instagram yesterday to share a snap of himself in his new team’s kit.
There were plenty of familiar faces in the comments, including Liverpool teammates past and present as well as plenty of Fabinho’s Brazil national team colleagues.
Origi and Shaqiri are two players who shared some good times with the 29-year-old at Anfield, and both were keen to convey their best yesterday.
“Good luck my gaaaa,” wrote Origi, while Shaqiri went with a similar theme. “Good luck flakooo,” said the little Swiss.
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Former teammates send Fabinho wishes
It doesn’t seem too long since all three of these players were plying their trade together. But the fact is that Liverpool’s all-conquering team of 2018-2020 is virtually no more.
Of the 19 players who played in both the Champions League and Premier League winning campaigns of that period, only seven now remain.
In a period where Liverpool have actually allowed their squad to get a little stale, that’s a remarkable statistic.
Of course, six of that legendary team have all left this summer. That turnover has led to the 2023/24 genuinely feeling like the start of a new era at Anfield.
Where stories have been written by the likes of Fabinho, Origi and Shaqiri, new ones will now come.
Liverpool are well equipped to deal with that – providing they sign a midfielder or two between now and September. But there is still a certain sadness at the greatness of this team becoming a memory.
The seven that remain will hopefully still be here for some time yet. But the messages of Origi and Shaqiri are a reminder that Alisson, Andy Robertson, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Joel Matip, Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez and Mohamed Salah won’t be around forever either. That’s football, I guess.