Liverpool have signed Brazilian goalkeeper Alisson from AS Roma for world record fee of £66.8 million - the highest fee ever for a goalkeeper.

The deal has eclipsed the previous record set by Manchester City when they signed Alisson's compatriot Ederson from Benfica for £35 million last summer. 

Also, the move is more than double the amount Juventus paid for Gianluigi Buffon when he signed for the Turin outfit securing a £33 million move from Parma back in 2001.

The 25-year-old has been with Roma for two-years now and came against Liverpool in the Champions League semi-finals - losing 7-6 on aggregate over two-legs. 

He featured in 37 league games for I Giallorossi and help the team finish fourth in Serie A.

Liverpool can finally put the goalkeeper talks to bed as the signing will surely mean that the Brazil international will be the Reds new first choice keeper ahead of the 2018/19 season.

Alisson was a familiar face for the football neutrals this summer featuring in all five games for his country, keeping three clean sheets, before Brazil were knocked out at the quarter-final stage of the World Cup by Belgium.

Liverpool finally have their man

Liverpool's German manager Jurgen Klopp has had to consistently defend his fellow countryman Loris Karius after the 25-year-old keeper endured a nightmare showing in the Reds 3-1 Champions League final defeat to Real Madrid back in May.

Despite making two catastrophic errors that cost Liverpool European glory, Karius was later confirmed to have sustained a concussion after a clash with the Galactico's captain Sergio Ramos.

Klopp later publically stood by his player and revealed that Karius would not be thrown out of any future plans simply because of one shocking appearance.

However, the Reds boss was once again made to defend Karius last week after he was at fault for another mistake - this time in a pre-season friendly against Tranmere.

Karius was placed under the microscope once again after he spilt a free-kick that allowed the hosts to score in Liverpool's 3-2 win at Prenton Park.

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The Reds have signed a truly World Class shot-stopper 

Alison was one of the standout individual performers across Europe for goalkeepers - being rated by WhoScored as the best keeper across the continent for last season.

He was outstanding domestically for Roma with only Pepe Reina seeing more clean-sheets (18) than Alisson in Serie A last season. 

His shot-stopping stats are nice on the eye for supporters who will be pleased to see that the Brazilian no 1 boasts a save success of 80.1 per cent - second in the world to Atletico Madrid goalkeeper Jan Oblak.

Also, what makes this signing even more attractive for Merseysiders will be that his pass completion rate stood at 77 per cent last season. The only player to better that in the Premier League was his international team-mate Ederson who won the league with the Citizens last season.

Alisson's impressive stats are boosted by his natural ability to play with the ball, not only will fans see an assured figure between the sticks at Anfield, but will see a composed outfit who could be the starting catalyst in opening Liverpool counter-attacks next season.

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Another World-Record Fee for Liverpool 

Not only have Liverpool added another Roma player to their shopping basket this summer, but have also made another world-record signing.

The extortionate price to have a new face between the sticks fares familiarly to when the Reds added Virgil van Dijk to their defensive ranks.

After several defensive problems early on last season for Klopp and his team, their German boss was forced to break the world-record fee for a defender to bring the Dutch captain to Anfield for a fee of £75 million.

Klopp got his man then with Van Dijk, and was rewarded impeccably with the Reds no four crucial in Liverpool reaching the Champions League final last season. One may argue with Alisson in goal the outcome of that European defeat may look a little differently.

Astonishingly Alisson is the same age as Karius, and already a European juggernaut. His young age and tall stature - coming in at a whopping 6ft 4 - means Liverpool may have solved a crucial position for the next decade and it could represent the significant signing that sees's the Reds challenge for silverware next season.

The move could see the final piece of the jigsaw in Klopp assembling a potential title-challenging side and a position that has previously cost the Reds crucial points over previous seasons and the goalkeeper position could finally be filled by a man fitting to wear the red shirt.

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About the author
Joshua Kerr
Third-year Sports Journalism student at Staffordshire University, contributing to Vavel UK since April 2017.