Notre Dame all felt a little familiar to Nathaniel Phillips on Tuesday evening.
Poignant, too.
Because three years ago, the Liverpool defender had picked out the university in Indiana for a potential football scholarship, while studying maths and economics, having been released by Bolton Wanderers.
Phillips’ plans to move to America in the summer of 2016 had gone as far as booking flights – only for a timely call from the Reds’ Academy to change his mind and lead to a contract with the club.
Today the centre-back arrived at Notre Dame as part of Jürgen Klopp’s first-team squad, who kicked off their nine-day stay in the USA with an afternoon training session at the university.