Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers believes Philippe Coutinho was born to play for Barcelona.
Coutinho, 25, completed a £142m (Dh706m) transfer from Liverpool to the Nou Camp on Monday, making him the third most expensive player in football history.
The Brazilian international has signed a five-and-a-half-year contract with the La Liga leaders, bringing to an end a five-year spell with Liverpool in which the playmaker scored 54 goals in 201 matches.
“I’m not surprised (he’s gone to Barcelona)” said Rodgers in Dubai on Tuesday, where the Scottish league leaders are currently based for a mid-season warm weather training camp.
“If Phil was born to play for any club it was Barcelona. His style is perfectly suited.
“Every part of him as a football player and as a human being is suited for Barcelona. Technical ability, incredible, tactical concepts, if he plays in different positions, physically he has speed, he has strength, mentally – very stable boy emotionally.
“And he’ll carry the values of Barcelona because he’s such a good person. He doesn’t waste his time doing stupid things. He’s a good guy. He’s perfectly suited for them.”
Rodgers played a key role in his development, bringing Coutinho to Liverpool from Inter Milan in 2013 when he was only 21.
“When I took Phil into Liverpool he was playing in Italy, not in the team,” the 44-year-old, who managed the Reds between June 2012 and October 2015, said. “He was a young player and when we had the chance we brought him in for £8.5m from Inter Milan and then people wondered is he going to be physically big enough.
“I’d seen him play as a young player for Vasco de Gama and then Inter Milan and I’d seen him play at 18 with Wesley Sneijder and (Samuel) Eto’o, so you could just tell he was a player. He just needed the opportunity and he came over and he was phenomenal, obviously, in my time and then he continued.
“So it doesn’t surprise me (he has gone to Barcelona).
“Obviously it’s sad for Liverpool but they’ve made a huge investment in the player, got a huge return, and then he gets the chance to go and play with his mate, Mr Suarez. They teamed up very well and were very close when they played together with me at Liverpool.
“He’s in there with some of the best players in the world, so it’s a great move for him, (and) Liverpool have made a huge profit on a young player.”
Rodgers worked a lot with Coutinho when he arrived at Liverpool, shaping him in to the player he is today.
“When Phil first come in he needed to, believe it or not, defend better.
“I’ve always felt in order to attack well, you need to defend well – as a team – so he needed to understand that side of it. How to press, how to be aggressive.
“He was a magician with the football and he’s been that since he was 11 years of age. I’ve seen some of the old Futsal images of him and he was amazing.
“So he’s always had that, that has always been his strength, so it was a matter of ‘Okay how we can integrate that in the British game that is a more physically tough league.’
“So we would play him in various positions. Start him off as a wide player, play as a ten, he played as a false nine for me, as a striker – then play in midfield as a central.
“More work with the strength and conditioning team then his natural football strength came into it as he got adapted to the way of working. That was how he could develop in order to sustain the level of performance.”
Rodgers watched Coutinho thrive on Merseyside.
Rodgers feels a sense of pride from bringing through not just Coutinho but several more promising stars who he has worked with early in their career.
“It’s what I love football for,” he said. “I think when I retire, I’ve always said, people will talk about trophies and all that side of it. My satisfaction comes from seeing the likes of Raheem Sterling, putting him in the team and then he moves for £49m.
“Bringing Luis (Suarez) in when I came to Liverpool and people talking about him ‘he doesn’t score’, ‘he doesn’t take enough chances’. In two seasons he gets his goals, gets his move.
“Putting Gylfi Sigurdsson in the team at Reading, bringing him to Swansea, watching him grow and develop. Joe Allen.
“That’s where I get my pride from, seeing players develop, learn. I try to bring in people who are coachable, hungry, willing to learn. If they’ve got those three things then you tend to find they grow naturally and you can help them improve.”
The Northern Irishman says Coutinho will be a “huge success” at Barcelona and sees him as a natural replacement for legend Andres Iniesta.
“I think he is the one player that can go in and genuinely (perform),” he said. “Iniesta’s a pleasure as a player, him and Xavi are incredible players. But if there’s a player that I can liken to Iniesta’s game in the world it’s young Phil.
“He’s different to Neymar, different type, he’s more the Iniesta type and obviously at 33 Iniesta’s game time is starting to become limited. Phil’s a natural successor.
“You couldn’t speak highly enough as Phil because as a person he’s an incredible guy.”
