One of the most interesting players to play for Liverpool in recent years is none other than David Origi. Many players that show some level of success in international games will get scouted by big teams – such as the legendary Patrick Berger who was signed from Borussia Dortmund after his impressive performance against the Czech Republic back in Euro ‘96.
When Origi had an incredible performance with Belgium in the 2014 World Cup, sports betting sites were awash with bets at what big team would sign him – with the lucky team being Liverpool.
Origi’s Origins
Whilst Origi himself was born in Ostend, a port city in Belgium, his roots stem back to the African country Kenya. Divock’s father himself was a footballer from Kenya, who played for a few different teams in Belgium and it was during his stint at these Belgian clubs – K.V. Oostende – that Divock himself was born in the middle of 1995.
These family football links go deeper than that though – Arnold, Divock’s cousin, also plays in Norway. All of these ties show Divock has always been around an environment where football is a highly held factor.
The Beginnings of a Career
Origi started his lustrous football career as a youth, playing In Genk, Belgium. Around his 15th birthday, he moved across the Begian-Franch border though into the city of Lille. Origi suffered a slow start, being a reserved team player until he showed enough promise to be bumped up to a first-team player in a French cup tie 3 months before his 18th birthday in 2013. Just nine days later Origi managed to land his senior debut, scoring in a draw in front of a crowd of over 36,000 fans.
A Big Break
Origi’s big break came during the 2013-2014 season of Ligue 1, where he made on pitch appearances for Lille in a majority of their games – 30 out of the 38 matches played that season. He managed to bang 5 behind the net that season, helping Lille get a third-place finish just behind Paris-Saint Germain and Monaco and reach a third qualifier for the Champions League.
During this time Divock was in contention with whether he would play internationally for either Kenya or Belgium. Whilst he and his cousin had both played for Kenya, Divock had also had success whilst representing Belgium. The question of which nation he would represent was answered when he was picked as part of the 23 man squad Belgium would be taking to the 2014 World Cup.
The 2014 World Cup
The 2014 World Cup was where Divock solidified his reputation to the eyes of the world, managing to have an incredible performance. He ended the tournament with appearances in five games for Belgium and one goal – a late screamer against Russia to help Belgium win the game.
This world cup run as a teenager made Divock a promising prospect for many top tier clubs – a handful of whom had had their eyes on him way before the world cup. One of these clubs was Liverpool, which saw the promising young talent and the reasonable transfer price and snapped him up in 2014 for £10 million.
Liverpool Career
Origi’s Liverpool career didn’t exactly start with a bang – he didn’t start a league game at all under the then manager Brendan Rogers. It was when Jurgen Klopp took over that he was given a chance to breathe and show what he was made of, resulting in a glorious 6-1 Liverpool win against Southampton – 3 of which were banged in by Origi.
After this dramatic entrance, he went on to make a massive difference for Liverpool over the last part of the season, scoring 10 goals and making 33 appearances. He played well enough over the seasons to strike a new contract for Liverpool that was long term in July 2019. Fast forward to 2021 and he’s become synonymous with scoring the goals the matter when they’re needed for Liverpool.
Whilst he held records for the youngest Belgian to score at the World Cup and the youngest Kenyan, he isn’t just talented on the pitch though – Divock also speaks four languages, he has become somewhat of a cult hero at Liverpool. Whilst he isn’t recognised as one of the best players ever, he has legend status on Merseyside.
