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Last week, following the EFL Cup clash against Arsenal, Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp gave some big compliments to Gabriel Martinelli, calling the wonderkid a ‘talent of the century’.

His comments received big coverage in Brazil over the whole weekend, since it means a lot for such a young player to have his talents acknowledged by a manager like Klopp.

Esporte Interativo managed to make an exclusive interview with the German boss, and apart from a couple of questions about Liverpool, they once again asked him about Martinelli.

“It wasn’t in this game only. I think I’ve watched the… I watch a lot of football. So I saw the Europa League games of Arsenal, so… he’s 18 years old, right?

“We all have scouting departments all over the world and stuff like this. But I think Edu gets all the credit for that signing. He came from wherever and is really unbelievable. So young, looks so mature already, he’s a proper threat, looks like a really decent player. I didn’t want to put any weight on his back with this thing, but it’s just that I really like good football players and obviously he’s a very good one.”

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The club probably not very happy with the ‘wherever’ said by Klopp are the player’s former side Ituano.

Following the manager’s comments last week, journalist Jorge Nicola made a story saying Corinthians and Palmeiras had the chance to land Martinelli in the past. Ituano, where he played for years, weren’t mentioned in the title.

So Ituano went public quoting his tweet. They wrote: ‘Another journalist who wants visibility and audience using Corinthians and Palmeiras in the headlines. Unfortunately, that is not what good journalism is about.’