Former Liverpool goalkeeper
The 31-year-old joined Liverpool from Sunderland in 2013 for £9m and went on to make 155 Premier League appearances for the Reds in this time.
However, his shaky performances saw Loris Karius brought in before Alisson was signed, the latter consigning Mignolet to the bench for the majority of last term, prompting him to leave the club this summer for regular first team football.
This is something he has now found with Club Brugge, featuring frequently for the Jupiler Pro League side in his homeland after joining for £6.4m in August from the Reds.
However, speaking to Het Nieuwsblad this week, Mignolet, who has been capped 21 times by Belgium, revealed he was on the radar of Premier League sides Crystal Palace, Bournemouth and newly promoted Aston Villa, claiming his fee ruled out any potential moves.
He said: “Clubs evaluate the cost of what they have to pay me, to Liverpool plus the resale value. For teams like Crystal Palace, Bournemouth or Aston Villa, that was too high. They were very concrete.”
Portuguese heavyweights Porto and Benfica were also interested in his services and it is thought the price would not have been the stumbling block, with both seemingly have more money to spend than Club Brugge.
However, when asked about this, Mignolet added: “Porto and Benfica reach the quarter-finals in the Champions League but playing in Guimaraes or Madeira has no difference to Belgian league games.”
The crucial reason why he chose to move to Belgium for the next five years became even clearer in his final response, stating he has wants to catch Belgian head coach Roberto Martinez’s attention again and start for Belgium ahead of Real Madrid keeper Thibaut Courtois.
He revealed: “I would have to keep a four-hour flight away from home, where, apart from the Champions League matches, I completely disappear from the eyes of the Belgian public and the national coach.
“Plus, Benfica’s offer was by no means better than that of Club Brugge. Here the coach called me, the chairman, Vincent Mannaert. Then the choice becomes easy. At Benfica it all went through. The best proof is that they didn’t take a goalkeeper in the end.”
Source: 90min
