Liverpool striker Divock Origi has revealed that he turned down a Manchester United offer as a teenager. Barely out of his teen years, Origi has since been flourishing with the Merseyside club.
A 15-year-old Origi turned down Manchester United to sign for French club Lille before also revealing that he turned down Bayern Munich in 2014 to join Brendan Rodgers’ Liverpool. “I started with the national team at under-16s,” he said.
“It was a very good year for me, a lot of scouts were coming to my dad. I heard Manchester United wanted to sign me, some Italian clubs and German clubs.
“I visited Lille’s training centre. I was amazed how good it was. I saw how Eden Hazard had grown from young player to big player winning the league with them and that was something very nice. They have a very good reputation at developing young players.
“My heart said: ‘go to Lille.’ I remember coming home from school, sitting in the kitchen and my dad said: ‘the choice is yours, what do you want to do?’ I decided to go to Lille.”
Origi was a huge player for Lille and grew to be the kind of player he is today. But he had another series of decisions to make a little later in his life and Origi says a host of European giants all offered him deals but he decided to give Liverpool a shot.
He said: “There were offers from everywhere. Bayern were interested, all these clubs. But I came to Liverpool, I saw the facilities, I took some time out of my vacation to visit Melwood and speak with (then manager) Brendan Rodgers.
“When I came in, everyone knew my name, they knew who I was and they were looking at a video of me even from the under-15s. They knew about my qualities and when I saw the values of the club - passing, pressing, fast players - I was like: ‘this is the place I want to go.’
“Lille didn’t want to let me go, they wanted to find a solution, I wanted to join Liverpool, I wanted to play and in general everyone agreed to allow me to stay on for one more year at Lille.
“When I first came in to Liverpool, I realised quickly what an immense club this is. We went to Malaysia, it was very nice to see because you see how big players maintain their level, the work they put in, the professionalism and how strikers are working.”
Origi is having a breakthrough season with the Reds having already scored five goals in fifteen appearances for the club this season. And in the absence of Daniel Sturridge and Philippe Coutinho, could be the one who could make the starting line-up.
