The name of Divock Origi will be forever remembered for his vital goal that helped Liverpool to snare their sixth Champions League title. But the striker believes that there is whole lot more where that came from – and not content to rest on his laurels, Origi is determined to achieve even more success at Anfield.
And so, while his strike against Tottenham Hotspur in the 2-0 victory in Madrid in June will be seared into the minds of the Reds hoards the world over, he is already looking to the future. And to that end he has put pen to paper on a new deal with the club — to the delight of coach Jurgen Klopp, his backroom team and, of course the followers of the Mersey giants.
Belgian goal-getter Origi, who is aged, 24, joined the club in 2014 from French outfit Lille for a fee of £10million. And he was clearly delighted when he spoke to the club’s official website to explain his thoughts on remaining with the Kop outfit. He said of his just-signed, long-term contract extension:
“I’m very happy to be able to sign this contract and it gives you a boost at the beginning of the season, as well as the end of the season last year.
“So, I’m very happy. I always felt comfortable here. I made steps during my career, I say that I became a man here at this club, I signed when I was 19. When we had to make the decision I just wanted to speak with the club first and my entourage, but the feeling was always that I wanted to stay and extend my contract.”
Klopp says it was an easy decision to make to offer Origi — capped by his international side Belgium on 25 occasions — a new deal. He said:
“We wanted to sign him again, to extend the contract, and the nice thing is he wanted to as well. He realised it was a tough time but we never gave him up in that time, we never said, ‘OK, that will never work again’, but sometimes in football you don’t have enough time. Thankfully we had enough time that we could kind of wait until he is ready again. Now he is this wonderful player again so it’s great to have him and I’m really, really happy about the signing.”
Meanwhile, the Reds begin their pre-season friendly fixtures tonight when they make the short trip to Preston Park to face Tranmere Rovers; and one player keen to be involved is defender Dejan Lovren — despite having been back in summer training for just two days. He said:
“I’m a football player so I want to play football — that’s what I’m doing all my life so why not? The vacation is over, it’s time to work and to get back on track where we stopped. We need to prepare ourselves for the beginning of the season because the schedule is quite tight when you look at it.”