In years to come, Vitezslav Jaros may look back on the night of 30 October 2024 as a seminal moment in his career.
The Czech goalkeeper marked his first senior start for Liverpool with an eye-catching performance as he made five saves in the Reds’ 3-2 win over Brighton in the Carabao Cup, most notably a stunning reaction stop to deny Simon Adingra early in the second half.
Among the post-match exchanges between the two camps, the 23-year-old was a topic of particular interest for a positional peer on the other team.
Verbruggen was asking all about Jaros
As reported by Paul Gorst for the Liverpool Echo, Brighton ‘keeper Bart Verbruggen approached the Reds’ head of goalkeeping Fabian Otte in the tunnel at the Amex Stadium with a series of questions.
The Seagulls stopper is believed to have enquires about Jaros’ age and nationality, as well as his preferred kicking foot and where he’d previously been on loan from Anfield.
Otte patiently fielded each of those questions before telling the 22-year-old that the Czech goalie’s aforementioned heroics to deny Adingra was ‘one of the best of the saves I’ve seen in a long, long time’.
Jaros certainly caught the eye last night
Although Verbruggen is a year younger than Jaros, he’s accrued far more high-level experience, playing more than 50 times for Brighton and Netherlands combined, but it speaks to the Seagulls custodian’s desire to improve that he held that impromptu Q&A with Otte after the match last night.
Jaros is unlikely to feature regularly for Liverpool this season, unless Caoimhin Kelleher were to join Alisson Becker on the treatment table, though his performance at the Amex suggests that he could be handed further appearances by Arne Slot over the coming months.
In just his second senior outing for the Reds, the 23-year-old is already attracting plenty of admiring glances; and with Giorgi Mamardashvili coming to Merseyside next summer, the Czech ‘keeper could become a wanted man for quite a few clubs who’d be eager to hand him regular game-time.
Even if Jaros doesn’t manage to establish himself at Anfield in the long-term, we wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if FSG were to fetch a tidy transfer fee for him prior to him thriving elsewhere.
