Liverpool have signed Divock Origi from Lille Metropole for a fee of £10m.
The 19-year-old Belgian has put pen to the dotted lines on a long-term contract and becomes the Red’s sixth signing of the summer. He was immediately loaned back to France where he will continue his development at Lille before returning to Anfield in the summer of 2015.
Liverpool had been on the tail of Origi, whose own father, Mike, played for Kenya’s Harambee Stars, before finally beating off staunch competition from other Premier League outfits for the youth prospects’ penmanship.
Arsenal are One of the Premier League Club Interested in Signing Origi Who has Now Penned a Long-Term Deal With the Anfield Club.
“I am very, very happy and delighted a club as big as Liverpool showed interest in me. I’m very excited,” he told LFCTV at the team hotel in the United States on Tuesday.
“For me, it was my dream to play for a big club. I know Liverpool is a club with a great history, so for me it was perfect.”
He began his football career in the youth teams of Genk, with whom his father once lifted the Belgian Jupiler title.
He joined Ligue 1 club Lille in the summer of 2010 and made his senior team debut in February 2013 at the age of 17 years and 10 months, coming off the bench to score within six minutes against Troyes.
His five goals in 30 games helped Lille to a third-place finish last season.
The Ostend-born forward rose through the youth ranks of Begium’s ‘Red Devils’- from U-15- to U-21- and eventually rejected offers from the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) to earn his international debut in a 2014 World Cup warm-up against Luxembourg.
He was named in coach Mark Wilmort’s 23-man World Cup party in place of the injured Christian Benteke and went on to make 5 appearances, as he often times was favoured ahead of Chelsea’s Romelu Lukaku during the tournament.
He became the first player of Kenyan origin to score at a World Cup tournament, as his late strike in the group stage win over Russia guided Belgium into the last 16.
Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers said: “He’s super fast, has a wonderful touch, he’s a good size and is aggressive. What I like, and what I have in other players, is that humility to work hard.
“I’ve seen enough of him over the course of the last couple of seasons to think this is a kid who, coming into the right environment, can genuinely be world class.”
Liverpool have already signed Paul Lambert, Adam Lallana, Emre Can, Lazar Markovic and Dejan Lovren this summer.
by Greenstarnetwork admin..
No comments:
Post a Comment