The goalkeeper Real Madrid destroyed in the 2018 Champions League final has risen again. Eight years later, Loris Karius secured promotion for Schalke 04 to the Bundesliga and completed his redemption story.
The German goalkeeper, Loris Karius, who gained global popularity for that tragic night of errors in the 2018 Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid, has now been promoted to the Bundesliga with his team, Schalke 04.
The player, 32, has achieved a great story of football redemption under the command of Miron Muslic, recording 12 clean sheets in the season and allowing only 24 goals in 29 matches, making him the goalkeeper with the fewest goals conceded in Bundesliga 2.
He joined Schalke 04 in January 2025, but it is important to remember that before that, he was considered a retired player, as he was a free agent for more than six months and did not have a professional team. His last teams had been Besiktas and Union Berlin on loan from Newcastle United.
The goalkeeper shared the following message: "No matter how hard you fall, what matters is how you get up," this after achieving promotion in German football, despite having earned nicknames in the past such as "Calamity Karius."
Karius married Diletta Leotta, an Italian journalist, in June 2024. He currently has a contract with the German team until 2027 and has said he intends to stay at Schalke to face the challenges of returning to the Bundesliga.
The curious thing is that the decisive match against Fortuna Dusseldorf could have coincided with the birth of his child, as his wife is nine months pregnant. She, on her Instagram account, took the liberty of posting a message in which she highlights the following: "Football can be ruthless; it exposes you and tests you." Something that Karius sadly suffered in 2018, when his two mistakes cost Liverpool the Champions League.
"If you find the strength to keep believing, sooner or later, life will give you back exactly where you deserve. I am proud of you. As a woman, as a wife," concluded Diletta in her post dedicated to Karius.
Now, he will once again face several of Europe's best teams, giants such as Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, and RB Leipzig, to name just a few, but it is clear that Karius has left the ghosts of 2018 behind and is hungry to show everyone a new side of himself.
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