Firmino: I have had the time of my life but it is time to leave Liverpool

Roberto Firmino is parting ways with Liverpool in the most amicable of ways according to his agent.

News broke on Friday that Firmino was set to leave the club that he has called home for eight seasons and over 350 appearances in all competitions.

It was an emotional moment for many fans as the Brazilian has been an instrumental figure in this special era for the club.

Alongside Mo Salah and Sadio Mane, they combined to become the most potent and feared front three in the Premier League and arguably in Europe. The beauty about the trio is that they each had different elements to their game and when you put it all together, you had a winning formula.

In the Samba tradition, Firmino had his share of technical quality to his game, however he combined that with a tremendous and selfless workrate which made those around him better players.

And to top it off, he did it with a terrific attitude and a trademark smile.

But as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end and with Liverpool embarking on a re-generation of sorts, and with Firmino out of contract come the end of this season, all things added up to this decision

Speaking to Football Insider about the moment when it came to fruition was Firmino’s agent Roger Wittman, who said that Firmino was emotional but very honest about what he needed to do.

“This was not the easiest decision for the boy. It took a long time to make his decision along with the family and the decision was with love.

“Roberto is a peaceful man and said, ‘I’ve had my time but it’s time to go. Liverpool was the biggest, greatest, most successful time of my life together with the manager, together with my colleagues, together with all of them’. It was an unbelievable journey.

“He said the feeling with Liverpool, this is unbeatable. This club, the people, all of them. I saw so many rumours about the boy making a decision, even the club, but everything was with peace."

It is rare in modern day sport for athletes to maintain their core values with all the money and various endorsement opportunities that are available.

But in the case of Firmino, you can take him completely at face value, what you see is what you get.

As Wittman explained, this whole experience is new for him, but at the moment he wants to stay truly professional and do the best thing by his current club.

“Our plan for the next couple of weeks – this is the plan of Roberto – is to show the manager and Liverpool finally again the best version of him to say goodbye. This is what he wants to do.

“He has no clue what that means for him in the near future. He told us during the whole phase when we negotiated, ‘I don’t want to talk to anybody else, there’s no need to do that’. He said it was a decision with the club.

“This was the first time in my life he’s a free agent player and he said there was no need to talk to others! So he’s not motivated by other clubs or by financial terms – far away from that.

“He is the best Brazilian scorer ever in the Premier League (currently on 78 goals) , he’s not a normal one, a top human. He was really, really sad as well, when he told us this would be his new challenge, it was unbelievably emotional.

“The club gave him the time as well, no pressure. And he never started to compare asking us to talk to different clubs. For us [it would be] easy but this was not his intention, it was just to find his own way. This is so far away from this normal business, believe me!”

In terms of departures from clubs, this appears to be as pure and mutually respectful as you can get. Unless a miraculous comeback occurs in Madrid in a few weeks time, Firmino’s last season will be without any silverware.

However playing a part in clinching Champions League football next season will be fitting of the individual and his want to help the team in any way.

And the silver lining about this early announcement is that it will give fans ample opportunity to pay tribute to the 31 year-old.