Bobby Adekanye has admitted that he turned down a three-year deal at Liverpool before joining a ‘very ambitious’ Lazio side last summer, telling The National that he had doubts about whether a first-team role could be secured at Anfield.
While Jurgen Klopp’s Reds are on the verge of becoming Premier League champions for the first time in three decades, Lazio too have their sights fixed firmly on glory.
If the capital club secure an impressive victory away at a free-flowing Atalanta side on Wednesday night (which is easier said than done of course), they will move to within one point of Juventus at the Serie A summit.
With just 77 minutes of top-flight football under his belt this season, it’s fair to say Adekanye has played a minimal role in Simone Inzaghi’s plans at the Stadio Olimpico.
But the Dutch U21 international is convinced that he made the right decision when he swapped Liverpool for Lazio in 2019.
“Liverpool offered me a three-year contract, but I didn’t really see any plans for me in the future,” said Adekanye, who spent four years at Anfield after honing his talents at PSV and Barcelona.
“It felt like they were just saying: ‘just sign the contract and we’ll see’, which didn’t look good to me and my family. I felt like I was ready to join the first team, even though they have a lot of talent.
“Lazio were very ambitious, and they showed me that they wanted me in the team, and that they had some pretty good plans for the future.”
Adekanye was always highly regarded at Anfield and the chance to work under a coach like Klopp, who has provided a platform to some of the biggest talents in the modern era at Liverpool and Dortmund, is usually one that a budding youngster would not dare turn down.
But with Mo Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane ahead of him in the pecking order, let alone Divock Origi and Xherdan Shaqiri, you can understand why Adekanye felt he had to cut ties with the 2019 European champions.
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