Jürgen Klopp has claimed Liverpool were beaten to the signing of Jadon Sancho by Borussia Dortmund because Manchester City refused to sell to a Premier League rival.

The Liverpool manager confirmed his club’s interest in the teenage forward before Tuesday’s Champions League tie with Bayern Munich, who attempted to add Chelsea’s Callum Hudson-Odoi to their squad last month. While greater first-team opportunity is viewed as the principal reason for leaving the Premier League for the Bundesliga, with Sancho, Keanan Bennetts and Reiss Nelson among those to depart in recent seasons, Klopp believes the transfer policies of English clubs is another factor.

Liverpool, the manager admitted, wanted to sign Sancho but their rivalry with City rendered the deal a non-starter. Tottenham, Arsenal and Manchester United were also keen on the England forward before, having declined a professional contract at the Etihad Stadium, he joined Dortmund for an initial fee of £8m in August 2017.

Asked about the recent trend of German clubs signing young English players, the former Dortmund manager replied: “Buying English players is a smart idea because we would never have a chance to get Sancho. We are not blind – we saw him, we liked him and then we think: ‘Can we get him?’ No. Because English clubs don’t sell to other English clubs. I don’t know exactly what the reason is for that but they don’t do it. Now they can go to Germany, which is a wonderful league.”

Michael Zorc, Dortmund’s technical director, said recently that the quality of young players was higher in England than Germany at present. Klopp concurs, although he does not believe the Bundesliga has a lasting problem. “There is no dip,” he added. “Six or seven years ago you had all these boys coming up – Marco Reus, André Schürrle, Mario Götze, Thomas Müller, Mats Hummels – and it was clear when they became Under‑21 European champions it would be a generation of proper quality. It is clear that England now has that situation. It is like a wave with one country a little bit up and another country down.”