Liverpool’s goalkeeper Alisson Becker has cautioned the incoming shot-stopper Giorgi Mamardashvili that he has no intention of leaving anytime soon.
As the Brazilian approaches his 33rd birthday at the beginning of the next season, he continues to perform at an exceptional level.
Alisson has once again surpassed expected goals metrics, successfully preventing more goals than the average goalkeeper, and showcased remarkable form in continental competitions.
Liverpool’s manager, Arne Slot, has praised him as “the best goalkeeper in the world,” highlighting his impressive save ratio of 89% during the 2024–25 Champions League season.
Mamardashvili’s transfer to Liverpool for £29 million ($39.2 million) was confirmed last summer; however, the Georgian goalkeeper spent the previous season on loan at Valencia.
Although the 24-year-old did not have his best season, he, like many of his teammates, showed improvement in the latter half of the campaign.
Having emerged as a breakout star at Euro 2024, Mamardashvili has previously expressed his ambition to claim Alisson’s No. 1 starting position upon joining Liverpool for the 2025–26 season.
The current goalkeeper, however, has no plans to relinquish his position and has indicated his intention to remain in Merseyside until at least 2027.
“I’ve never been able to plan long term,” Alisson remarked while on international duty with Brazil this week.
“Obviously now I have one year left on my contract and another year of club option, which they will probably exercise.
“There is hardly a single statistical measure in which Mamardashvili has outperformed Alisson in recent seasons.
Nevertheless, unlike his new teammate, the resilient Georgian has only missed three matches due to injury since joining Valencia in 2022, while Alisson has been sidelined for 50 matches during the same timeframe.
However, should the injury-prone South American face setbacks next season, Mamardashvili will not have an unobstructed opportunity to secure a position between the posts.
To further complicate Arne Slot’s decisions regarding goalkeeper selection, Liverpool has confirmed the acquisition of Armin Pecsi from Puskás Akadémia for a record fee of £1.5 million ($2 million), marking a significant milestone for the Hungarian top flight.
At merely 20 years of age and with just over two seasons of senior football experience, Pecsi is viewed as a signing aimed at the future.
“They envision a long-term project that they have outlined for me,” the 6’3” goalkeeper stated in an interview with the Hungarian national team’s YouTube channel.
“It is challenging to encapsulate this in a single sentence, as numerous matches are analyzed in various ways; they possess data on nearly every aspect discussed during the meeting.
The level of detail they focused on was quite remarkable.
“Naturally, it provides me with immense motivation that such a prestigious club and their data analysts have chosen my name, indicating their desire to develop my potential.
Therefore, that is undoubtedly my objective, and I aim to demonstrate that they made the right choice in selecting me for this role.”