Philippe Coutinho left no stone unturned with his messages to everyone who’d looked after him so well at Liverpool.
Coutinho wished manager Jurgen Klopp well, praised the staff at the club and reserved a heartfelt thank you to the supporters who grew to adore him over the past five years.
But the Brazilian didn’t forget to get in touch with the man who brought him to Anfield in the first place and allowed him to display his skill on a platform like the Premier League.
Rodgers signed Coutinho from Inter Milan for £8.5 million in January 2013 and few could have anticipated the kind of talisman that he would develop into, ultimately warranting a £142 million move to Barcelona.
The 25-year-old got in contact with the now-Celtic boss after being unveiled as Barca’s newest attacking talent to thank him for everything he’d done.
“He sent me a nice text the other day when he was arriving in Barcelona,” Rodgers told the Daily Record. “He is a great young guy, he was never a moment’s problem for me. He was a magical player to work with.
“It’s brilliant for both as he is a Barcelona player if ever there was one. At the time when I brought him, he wasn’t in the team at Inter Milan. People questioned whether he was big enough and tall enough.
“But I’d seen him as a young player at 18 at Inter Milan around top players and I always felt he had the technical quality. And, of course, he was always going to get better physically.
“We kept in contact ever since we left.”
Coutinho became the second most expensive player of all time with his switch to the Camp Nou and while both the buying and selling club continue to debate about how the transfer came to fruition, what remains in no doubt is Coutinho’s quality.
“Before he came over to Liverpool, he was low in confidence,” Rodgers added. “I believed in his ability. It was clear what he was. If you see him play now, he played like that when he was an 11-year-old child, if you see videos of him playing Futsal.
“He was exactly the same. But he needed that belief. He came in and developed and improved. He was outstanding for me and a real humble boy.
“He will go and join Luis (Suarez) now. They both got on very well.
“He is in the middle of his asset age, so he’s going to light it up there for the next eight, nine, 10 years. A brilliant player who works really hard and never forgets his roots.”
