Last year, in early spring, I heard rumours about a talented Belgian kid playing well for Lille, in France.
His name? Origi.
That name rang a bell since there was a Kenyan player named Mike Origi playing in the Belgian league during the 90’s.
In April 1995 he played for Ostend and that’s where his son Divock was born. Later, Mike was transferred to Genk, a subtop team in Belgium.
At the age of 6, Divock followed in his father’s footsteps and started playing for the youth team of KRC Genk. When he was 15 he got picked up by the highly praised youth academy of Lille OSC in France. Only 2 years later he made his debut in the first team.
While Divock was playing for the U21 Belgium national team he was relatively unknown to the general public.
So it came to a surprise that Wilmots, the Belgium manager, called on him to replace injured Benteke to join the squad for the world cup in Brazil.
Belgium started the first game in that world cup against Algeria with Lukaku as the main striker. In the 58th minute, Origi came on the pitch to replace the Everton striker as Belgium was one goal down.
His first minutes on the pitch showed so much pace and skill that it lifted the team’s confidence and the ‘Red Devils’ turned it around winning 2 to 1.
Source: liverpoolfc.com
In the second game against Russia, Origi replaced a poor playing Lukaku again and scored the only goal of the game. Football fans from all over the world praised the young striker and the next 2 games against USA and Argentina, Wilmots had to pick Divock in his starting 11.
In his match against USA , arguably the best game in last year’s Word Cup, he could have scored a few more goals if it weren’t for Tim Howard who had the game of his life.
Based on a late 90’s tune (Magic Carpet Ride by Mighty Dub Katz) a song was made “ORIGIGIGI ORIGIGO. I remember watching 10,000 people on a market square in Ghent going nuts to that song and I have to admit – blame Stella Artois – I sang it along with them.
A month prior to the World Cup I couldn’t believe my eyes when I read the news that Liverpool FC bought him from Lille.
In an interview, he stated that Rodgers convinced him to join the Reds and that they’ve shown clips of him playing footy under the age of 15. At the time it showed me that the Liverpool scouting system was doing great, screening young talented players all over the world.
Unfortunately the deal was that he was going straight back to Lille on loan for 1 season. I still believe LFC could have used a pacey, skillful striker last season because of Sturridge’s injuries and failing Borini, Lambert and Balotelli.
Brendan wanted to recall him in January, but Lille didn’t give in.
Origi didn’t have a great season for Lille last year, but can you blame a 20 year old player who went from zero to hero in nothing more than a month, who signed a deal with a big club in the most prestigious league of the world and then had to go straight back to his former club?
Lille’s manager played him out of position a lot and the poor team Lille had last season didn’t help much either.
It’s because of this, most LFC fans don’t mention Origi in these summer months, they only see him as a back up striker and I even read some tweets of people wanting to off loan him again.
But the kid’s talent, his mental strength – every manager who he’s worked with praise his mentality- his entourage and his will to make it at a top level club -his post on instagram where he said proud to be a red- has to ensure LFC fans he’ll become a great asset for the club.
Maybe not in his first season, but certainly in the next couple of years.
Another one who’ll benefit from Origi when they’re together on the pitch is our little magician, Coutinho.
He’ll love a very quick striker who runs behind the opponent’s defenders to play his famous trough balls towards.
It’s up to Brendan to manage Origi the right way.
Play him in every cup game, both domestic and in Europe and bring him on in PL games where we’re up front so he doesn’t feel too much pressure and can bang in some goals.
Maybe then the Kop will sing ‘ORIGIGIGI ORIGIGO’ soon.
Jonas Van Gerrewey
Latest posts by Jonas Van Gerrewey (see all)
- Origi, will he make it? - July 14, 2015