Liverpool’s Divock Origi must rebuild his career this summer.
The World Cup will be a tough watch for Divock Origi this summer as he reflects on where he went wrong.
Four years ago Origi was emerging as a bright talent and starred in Brazil for Belgium, outshining more established stars Romelu Lukaku and Christian Benteke.
This time around he did not even make Belgium’s preliminary squad, even with Michy Batshuayi battling with an injury.
Origi has had a poor season out on loan with Wolfsburg, having been told he was surplus to requirements at Liverpool.
The Belgian netted only six goals for Wolfsburg this past season, and his omission from the Belgium squad did not come as a surprise.
What it does do is highlight his disappointing four years, and clearly moving to Liverpool was too much too soon.
Liverpool signed him from Lille after the World Cup, before loaning him back to the French side for a season.
Burdened by his World Cup exploits and the hype of a Liverpool move, Origi struggled, and moved to Anfield in 2015 as a striker with a lot to prove.
Post Luis Suarez, he had a spell where he unseated an injury prone Daniel Sturridge as Liverpool’s most reliable striker and led the line well for Jurgen Klopp, but once it became apparent that Klopp had big plans for Roberto Firmino in the position, the writing was on the wall for Origi.
Perhaps he shouldn’t regret signing for Liverpool and showing some ambition, but the last four years have not treated him well.
He might have been better off if Liverpool never showed an interest at all, and he had continued his development without the expectation.
But perhaps, Origi, who has just 45 career club goals, was never going to be the prolific striker Liverpool hoped he could be, and an error of the Brendan Rodgers regime.
Wherever his future lies, it does not appear to be at Anfield.
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