By David Awopetu
Zenit St Petersburg have signed defender Dejan Lovren from Liverpool for £10.9m on a three-year contract.
The Croatia centre-back, 31, has joined the Russian club after playing in 10 Premier League games this season for champions Liverpool.
Lovren was signed by Brendan Rodgers following an impressive debut season at Southampton, after previously representing Dinamo Zagreb, Inter Zapresic and Lyon.
He was a mainstay in the Reds team under Rodgers and in the early years of Jurgen Klopp, reaching the finals of the Europa League and League Cup before Liverpool’s recent flurry of trophies.
Lovren was part of the Liverpool squad which won the 2018/2019 UEFA Champions League, and the Super Cup and Club World Cup in 2019.
This was in addition to the English Premier League (EPL) crown in 2019/2020, which ended Liverpool’s 30-year top-flight title drought.
With Zenit, there will be the opportunity for Lovren to start every week for a side that is expected to again win the Russian Premier League and that will compete in the 2020-21 Champions League in whatever form that competition takes.
Reds manager, Jurgen Klopp, said “another Liverpool legend” had left the club.
“He was absolutely a very, very important part of this team from the first day since I was in,” added the German, who took charge in October 2015.
